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Guru Talk: Sajan Pillai, UST Global VC Talk: Bejul Somaia, Lightspeed Ventures Most Promising Mobile App Companies

EMPOWERING TECHNOLOGY LEADERS OF TOMORROW January 2011 thesmarttechie.com

Sunil Rao
Head, Forum Nokia India
 EMPOWERING TECHNOLOGY LEADERS OF TOMORROW

Vol 7 Issue 1  January 2011

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 Contents - January 2011

20 COVER STORY

Forum Nokia
Enabling
Developers
Smart
By Vimali Swamy Sunil Rao
Head, Forum Nokia India

[Guru Talk] 8 [Technology 38 50

Evolution of Mobile Devices and Future of Test Automation Tools & In-
Services frastructure
By Arun Samudrala, By Anand Bagmar, ThoughtWorks
United Mobile Apps
[Buyers Perspective] 54
By Sajan Pillai
[Technology] 40
Mobile Data Growth in India an
Beyond the Metros: Bringing IT Opportunity and a Challenge
[Events] 56
Opportunities to Tier II and III Cities siliconindia MentorGraphics Leadership
By Anjan Ghosal,
By Sajan Pillai, UST Global awards for the Embedded/VLSI Industry
IntelliNet Technologies
By Eureka Bharali
[In Focus] 10 42
Security Challenges in Using Social 59
[Tech Buzz] 14 Media Bug- Experts Throw Solutions for Bud-
By Gary Bahadur, KRAA Security ding Testers
By Shwetha Raghavan
[VC Talk] 16
Financial Services & Education Potential 44
Areas for Startups “3G & speech” reconnecting India [Tech Products] 60
By Bejul Somaia, Lightspeed Venture Partners By Sunny Rao,
Nuance Communications [Leadership] 62
Move Beyond Logic
[Venture Beat] 18
46 By Binu T Paul
Enterprise Level SAN Features and So-
[Business] 19
Indian Startup Founders Are They Serious
on Sales?
By Eurekha Bharali
lutions at SMB Prices
By Tad Lebeck, Huawei Symantec Mobile App
Wirkle
ost Promissing
Companies
27
48 Interworld Commnet 28
[Technology] 36 Nonlinearity Initiatives in Software Dot Com Infoway 29
Enhancing through Learning Collabora- Testing Services Business HiddenBrains.com 30
tive Technology By Ajikumar TN, Robosoft 32
By Minhaj Zia, Cisco Wipro Technologies o2s360 33
Nex-G Exuberant Solutions 34

The Smart Techie

|6|
January 2011
 GURU TALK By Sajan Pillai
Author is CEO, UST Global
displacement—the need for people to
immigrate to find work. The Tier I
cities were becoming saturated with
Beyond the Metros: Bringing IT people and were nearing the limits of
their infrastructures. It became very
apparent that these limits would have
Opportunities to Tier II and III Cities an adverse impact on our ability to re-
duce costs while operating in these
locations.
Tier II and III cities were a re-
freshing alternative, once the model
was seen to work. Suddenly, there
were a whole lot of them to invest in.
Competition among these cities is in-
tense, and this is where key differen-
tiators can come into play to help
with cost reductions. In terms of so-
cial displacement, the use of Tier II
and III cities makes use of what you
might call an IT “necklace strategy”
that builds mega-centers offering em-
ployment opportunities to the masses
W
in more dispersed areas around,
rather than in the country’s biggest
cities. Eliminating much of the social
displacement in this way is one of the
biggest social benefits of Information
Sajan Pillai Technology. And being a service in-
dustry, there are no environmental
hen we started our opera- the potential of a service economy. We de- concerns to worry about, either.
tions in 1999, we were cided: Kerala had to be the right place. Attrition is a costly affair in most
looking for the perfect loca- Today, we have grown to 500 times our organizations—the cost of replacing
tion for our offshore devel- original strength, largely because about 60 per- an employee is estimated to be 1.5
opment centers. Our choice cent of our workforce is located in Kerala. times the employee’s annual compen-
surprised everyone around us. “Why would When we looked at the big cities—what we sation. UST Global has been success-
you choose Kerala?” asked our well-wishers. now call Tier I, at least in the Indian context— ful in keeping attrition to a level well
Kerala’s industrialization in 1999 below industry standards, primarily
included ER&DC, Keltron, and a Attrition is a costly affair in most due to efficient employee engage-
ment practices. Since employment
few small private companies pep-
organizations—the cost of replacing an must have consequences more far-
pered over Technopark. No global
company had a significant presence employee is estimated to be 1.5 times reaching than simple contentment
in the state, and prospects were hes- the employee’s annual compensation with a job well done, a well-engaged
itant to take the plunge. workforce results in happy employ-
We decided to look at the facts ees, which in turn reduces attrition.
rather than believe the propaganda. The qual- we saw the advent of a whole lot of industrial Traditionally, businesses have tried to
ity of education in Kerala is among the best in clusters, corridors, estates, hubs, and other speak the language of “employee sat-
this part of the world. The people, too, are sur- business units. When looking at possible target isfaction,” but that is being rapidly re-
prisingly cosmopolitan from years of exposure sites, we envisioned a model that took two placed in favor of “employee
to different cultures and from considerable mi- basic elements into consideration. First, that engagement.” In this context, en-
gration to and from the state. The workforce is the concept of outsourcing was primarily gaged employees are an essential fac-
highly stable and productive, while the gov- driven by the desire for cheaper talent and re- tor for any business, but the
ernment at the time was slowly waking up to duced operational costs. There was also social requirements don’t end there.
The Smart Techie
|8|
January 2011
For sustained commercialization
and confident investment, we need an
amalgamation of four fundamental
aspects: government support, re-
sources, quality talent input, and fa-
cilities. There is no substitute for any
Traditionally, businesses
have tried to speak the
language of “employee
satisfaction,” which is now
being replaced in favor of
“employee engagement
of these, but investors should be
made aware that these are available
together in one place. This calls for
solid marketing on behalf of the gov-
ernment. While a beautiful country-
side is nice to have, it is hardly
enough. Investors need to be con-
vinced of the commercial advantages
they can expect from investing in a
country like India. I can speak from
UST Global’s experience of expand-
ing operations into Manila, Philip-
pines and Chile. In both cities, the
governments welcomed us with open
arms. They promised us the best re-
sources, and most importantly, deliv-
ered on their promises with prompt
follow ups. These are the kind of
cities that are competing with India
for investments.
Most cities in South East Asia
have a rich culture and heritage like
the one we often boast of. Cities like
Thailand and Shanghai offer the same
or even better cost advantages than
India does. So these two points will
no longer set us apart from the crowd.
India still needs to work on a few crit-
ical aspects like education, industry
regulations, and communication.
When I speak of education in Tier
II and III cities, I should emphasize
that important personality develop-
ment is taking place during high
school. Schooling should be more
oriented towards communication
skills right from that level. If the ba-
sics are in place, the skills and con-
cepts required in professional life can
be learned from the employer organ-
izations. We at UST Global have spe-
cial career development programs,
many of which focus on the new gen-
eration. We believe in giving our as-
sociates the gift of lifetime
employability.
The government, for its part,
should ensure that we have the right
kind of infrastructure to showcase to
potential investors. Although we do
have some infrastructure, it is not
enough to support the amount of busi-
ness that can potentially come to our
shores. What I mean by “infrastruc-
ture” in this context goes beyond of-
fice buildings and telecom facilities
to include aspects such as a decent
way of life, civic amenities, enter-
tainment options, and security. Em-
ployees must be confident that there
is a sufficient supportive infrastruc-
ture in town to justify bringing their
families to live there.
In fact, some of our clients, after
they have seen Kerala while visiting
our facilities, are so impressed that
they want to bring their own busi-
nesses here. Unfortunately, a bit of re-
search into the geographical,
political, and economic climate of the
state reveals an unattractive side as
well. While we might have convinced
them in earlier times that the advan-
tages we have to offer easily out-
weigh the disadvantages, there are so
many options available today that
they just don’t have to take the risk.
What we do have in our favor is
the abundance of skilled talent and
the cost factor. If the government
steps in at the right time, bringing in-
vestment to our cities will be a cake-
walk. But we cannot afford to wait
another decade for the effects to
trickle down. We must strike while
the iron is hot. India has many prom-
ising locales for an IT destination.
Let’s make it work!
The Smart Techie
|9| January 2011
in
I I
Indian Companies Adapting Best Global Practices
ndian companies are keen in
adapting best global practices
and are increasingly doing so,
says an expert, though he warns that
these companies need to have regu-
lar evaluation at all levels to sustain
good corporate governance. “Cor-
porate governance has evolved enor-
mously in India and many big
companies in the country are com-
mitted to embrace global best prac-
tices for their business,” said
Stephen Wagner, Chairman Emeri-
tus of global consultancy Deloitte’s
Global Centre for Corporate
Governance.
“Good governance at companies
usually translates into good finan-
A
Diamond Studded Planet Discovered by U.S. Indian
Astronomer Led Team
stronomers led by an Indian
American have discovered a
giant planet with an atmos-
phere and a core dominated by carbon.
Nikku Madhusudan, a Banaras Hindu
University (BHU) alumnus who
works at Princeton University, New
Jersey, and his colleagues have ob-
served that an extremely hot planet
discovered last year has a never before
seen characteristic of having more car-
bon than oxygen. They said that this
actually raised the prospect that dia-
mond-studded stars may exist.
A computational technique devel-
oped two years ago by Madhusudan,
while he was at the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology (MIT), used to
analyze the atmosphere of the planet
which orbits a star about 1,200 light-
years from Earth. The surface tem-
|10|
The Smart Techie January 2011
cial numbers while just having good
names on the (firms’) board need
not ensure the same,” he said. It was
the `14,000 crore accounting fraud
of Satyam by its founder-chairman
Ramalinga Raju that brought the
issue of corporate governance into
sharp focus in India. Wagner
pointed out that regulations, espe-
perature of this planet, named WASP-
12b, seems to be 2300°C, which
makes it hot enough to melt stainless
steel. Madhusudhan, who is now a
postdoctoral scientist in the depart-
ment of astrophysical sciences at
Princeton, said that WASP-12b is
cially those associated to corporate
governance, should be framed after
taking into account the view points
of all market participants. He also
suggested that there should be an
annual evaluation process in place
to assess the effectiveness of the
board as well as the corporate gov-
ernance in companies.
“Entities should anticipate and be
more prepared to tackle risks and
shocks, mainly since the world is
getting more interconnected that is
also resulting in connectivity of
shocks,” Wagner said while talking
about the change in taking and man-
aging risk by the companies in the
recent years.
made largely of gas and only its core
contains carbon-based minerals such
as diamonds and graphite. This planet
was discovered in 2009 by re-
searchers in the UK-based consor-
tium called Wide Angle Search for
Bus ness
Planets (WASP).
He also added that the structure of
this planet might make us rethink our
long-ingrained ideas of planetary for-
mation and that with much hotness
and no solid surface the planet could
not support life. “If life exists on such
planets, it has to sustain low oxygen,
low water and lots of methane and
other hydrocarbons that would be in
the atmosphere,” Madhusudhan said.
Scientists used U.S. space agency
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to
observe light emitted by the planet
WASP-12b.
Learn from the BI experts. Don't miss this unique opportunity. Limited Seats
Register Now at www.siliconindia.com/events
ICT Can Reduce GHG Emission by 10 Percent
nformation, Communication and
Technology (ICT) solutions have
the potential to reduce India’s total
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by
10 percent by 2030. According
to a report this will result in
energy cost savings of
around Rs 137,000 crore
per annum. India is
presently the third largest
emitter of GHG after China
and the U.S. The report named
‘ICT Contribution to India’s
National Action Plan on Cli-
mate Change (NAPCC)’, at-
tributed the maximum potential
of saving of carbon dioxide emission
to the construction industry with a
whooping 42 percentage, followed by
road transport with 30 percent while
power sector came third with 16 per-
cent. The NAPCC was released by
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in
2008 as part of the nation’s strategy to
manage GHG emission.
i
Jan 23, 2011 • Delhi
Jan 29, 2011 • Pune
ntelligence
Conference
In today’s economy, businesses need quality
insights driven by accurate data more than
ever. Yet many IT organizations struggle to
provide easy-to-access data stores with the
right analytic capabilities, not to mention
integrated systems with all the metrics
different business users need. At the Confer-
ence, you will learn about the challenges,
solutions and future of BI from top industry
experts and leading-edge peers.
in
The report by the Digital Energy the adoption of ICT in buildings,
Solutions Consortium India (DESC) transport and nine sectors under PAT
and CII-ICT Centre of Excellence for (Perform, Achieve and Trade). This
Sustainable De- contributes to about 30 percent of the
velopment in- overall reduction. “Till date, no report
vestigated the in India has quantified the specific
possible savings possible using ICT solutions.
GHG reduc- The report allows industries to quan-
tion opportu- tify their potential energy as well as
nities via ICT monetary savings by adopting ICT-
solutions in based solutions,” said Rahul Bedi,
three mitiga- DESC Chairman.
tion-related The high technology costs, inade-
missions of quate energy benchmarks, weak regu-
NAPCC - National latory norms on carbon emission
Mission on En- standard and low research and devel-
hanced Energy Efficiency opment support are the main factors
(NMEEE), National Mis- that are preventing the country from
sion on Sustainable Habitat ICT adoption. The report recommends
(NMSH) and National Solar to create a platform for green jobs, un-
Mission (NSM). dertake steps to develop ICT adop-
NMEEE has set targets to reduce 100 tions, rationalization of direct and
million tonnes of carbon dioxide emis- indirect taxes, funds allocation, and to
sion by 2015, of which 31 million encourage research and development,
tonnes reduction comes as a result of as remedies to these ailments.
Expo Partner Supporting Partner
Gold Sponsor
Topics:
Emerging Trends and Technologies in the Business Intelligence Market
BI Design and Implementation Challenges
Solution Centricity- The Pivot for Successful BI / DW Implementations
Integrating Search and Business Intelligence
SharePoint 2010 Insights: BI for Everyone
Advisory board:
Andrew Oh, General Manager - Asia, Microstrategy
Rajgopal Kishore, VP & Global Head of BI, HCL Technologies
Sanjay Mehta, CEO, MAIA Intelligence
Dr. Gopala Krishna Chitta, Founder & CEO , INSTA Intelligence
Vibhas Joshi, SAS R&D India, Head R&D
Don’t miss a power packed day with several BI developers, architects,
project managers, IT managers and professionals, analysts and
business decision makers.
For speaking and sponsorship opportunities write to
events@siliconindia.com or call 080-43402006
in
T
e-Waste Recycling
Startups-VCs Confident, Yet Too Many Loopholes
By Eureka Bharali
he green statement has
been luring a lot of
startup to grab a pie of the
huge e-waste market. The
computing devices, elec-
tronic garbage that piles up within
every company, have always been a
source of the quick cash, thanks to the
scrap dealers, and currently, just five
percent gets recycled in an organized
way. In such a scenario, how would a
company venturing into the realm
bring in a better return on invest-
ment? Sachin Maheshwari,
who has recently joined
the boards of Zephyr Pea-
cock as its Director
quickly pinpoints, “The
amount of recycled goods
that comes out of a product cov-
ers all the recycling cost.
Whether it’s metal or gold, the
open market has a good price for
it.” During his stints in Draper
Fisher Jurvetson Maheshwari
himself was a part of one of the re-
cycling startups.
There are 58 million television
units in India which is expected to
reach 234 million by 2015. On the
other side, there are 75 million com-
puters in India since the life cycle of a
PC has come down to 3-4 years from
7-8 years a few years back. Similarly,
the Indian mobile handset market is
set to zoom across the 200 million
mark soon. E-waste management
firms claim that now it is possible to
recycle around 98 percent of a cell-
phone. If a general consensus on or-
|12|
The Smart Techie January 2011
ganized e-waste recycling is achieved
then there is no looking back for any
firm in this sector.
The biggest snag is the lack of
awareness and the urge to socially
come to a conclusion. “One is paid for
giving out the garbage to an unorgan-
ized recycler. Even if being socially
conscious about pollution is kept on
the sidelines for a minute, there are
also issues on security. For instance,
recently, many of the U.S. companies’
crucial data were found openly dis-
tributed on an online site of Nigeria.
This happens as there is no track of
in
India Third Largest
I
Cloud Service User
the products once it reaches the unor-
ganized scrap dealers’ hands. Herein, ndia is the third largest cloud (22 percent).
the work of the organized recycling service user in world and is The study assessed how IT man-
companies comes. We, for instance, ahead of U.S. The ranking is agers are evolving their data centers (69 percent) and India (76 percent)
use a specific technology to re-format based on Cisco Connected World and taking advantage of new tech- in the near future.
the hard-disks to ensure no data can Report, a new study commissioned nologies, at the same time working The study conducted in 13 coun-
be retrieved from the product. Also by network equipment vendor Cisco. to accommodate new trends in the tries also revealed that just about 18
the hazardous bi-products are dis- The study was conducted by the U.S. workplace like social media, device percent of respondents are using cloud
posed safely,” says Rohan Gupta, Co- market-research firm InsightEx- proliferation, video and an increas- computing today, while an additional
founder of Attero Recycling. It serves press. The countries that lead the list ingly mobile workforce. It maintains 34 percent plan to use the cloud. Also
more than 200 clients which include by taking maximum advantage from that globally 52 percent of the IT a large majority (88 percent) of IT re-
Wipro, HCL, Tata Tele Services, and cloud computing today are Brazil professionals have stated that they spondents expect to store some per-
Google among others. To some (27 percent) and Germany (27 per- use or plan to use cloud computing. centage of their company’s data and
extent even electronic manu- cent); followed by India (26 per- Higher cloud adoption rates are pre- applications in private or public clouds
facturing firms have started cent), U.S. (23 percent) and Mexico dicted in Brazil (70 percent), China in the next three years.
taking a notice of the re-usabil-
ity part. For instance, Nokia
claims that 65-80 percent of the
materials in their mobile phones
can now be recycled and given a
second life. Best practices can even
recover 100 percent of the materi-
SOFTEC
als - partly as energy. The market is
huge, yet till a complete agreement
from every nook of the society
2011 siliconindia Jan 29, 2011 • Chennai
comes it may not grow big.
A sneak view of the recent laws
The testing community today, and test managers in particular, are facing a number of new problems such as increasing
show that the government has intro-
complexity, ever-increasing demands to reduce time-to-market & the need for testers to take on more varied roles in the
duced legal compliance whereby
organization. The focus of this event will be how best to address the problems and cope with changing conditions and the Platinum Sponsor
every company will have to give out
need to optimize every effort. The conference provides clear guidance to the delegates and helps them understand the
challenges and issues faced in testing today, how best to address them and how to cope with changing conditions and the
the goods to the authorized recyclers.
need to optimize every effort.
Yet till 2012, the law will not be im-
plemented on a full force. As per At-
TOPICS Speakers
• An optimum approach to n-tier architectured T.Ashok, Founder & CEO, Stag Software
tero’s Founder, Nitin Gupta, the
application testing Prashant Lambat, Sr Manager-SQA Engineering, Symantec Corporation
country may also be seen as a hub for
• Building an Automation Framework around Pichumani N, CEO,SoftSmith
Anuradha Biswas, Founder & CEO,Prakat Solutions
e-waste management considering the
Open Source Technologies
• Commercial Test Automation Tools and its real benefit Samir Kulkarni, Project Manager, Kpit Cummins
fact that it takes $2 to recycle a single
Siddharth Gudagunti, Project Manager,Wipro
• Software Security Testing
PC in India compared to $20 in U.S.
Keerthi Kulkarni, Technical Consultant,Micro Focus Silver Sponsor
• Mobile/Infotainment Apps testing
Sathishkumar S, Manager-Test & Infrastructure and Tools,IBM
But will it happen before 2012,
• Cloud Testing: The future of software testing Vinay Srinivasan, Senior Technical Associate- Testing CoE,Tech Mahindra
• The Case for a Standard Uniform Test Modeling Language
chances seem to be meek.
• Globalization testing- Getting your software World-ready
• Avionics Testing
Exhibitor
Meet the Senior Testing Leaders and get practical solutions. Limited Seats
Register Now at http://www.siliconindia.com/events
For speaking and sponsorship opportunities write to events@siliconindia.com or call 080-43402006

Compiled By Hari Anil
SAP’s new High Performance Analytic
Appliance (SAP HANA) software
SAP AG unveiled High
Performance Analytic
Appliance (SAP
HANA) software
which is based on in-
memory database com-
puting. This first
version of SAP HANA
is the result of a robust
co-innovation program
between SAP and its
key partners and cus-
tomers.
SAP HANA lever-
ages the power of in- Vishal Sikka
memory data
processing by primarily relying on main memory for
computer data storage. The main memory databases are
faster than disk-optimized databases since the internal
optimization algorithms are simpler and execute only
fewer CPU instructions. “SAP HANA and the first ap-
plications built on it are already showing customers the
unprecedented speed of in-memory computing, as well
as the latency they have in the layers of their current IT
systems,” said Vishal Sikka, Executive Board Member,
Technology and Innovations Platform, SAP AG.
As a part of the co-innovation program, SAP has
used data from customers to demonstrate how particu-
lar business processes could be improved by SAP
HANA, and these customers are already seeing valu-
able results. Coca-Cola, Hellenic, Future Group, and
Hilti are some of the key customers who provided data
for analysis. “We participated in the co-innovation pro-
gram of SAP HANA and saw how SAP in-memory
computing can dramatically improve our processes,”
said Martin Petry, CIO, Hilti.
Working together with its partner and customer
ecosystem, SAP plans in the next year to introduce new
applications based on SAP HANA that will help utility
companies manage power supply in real time, provide
retailers more timely analysis of point-of-sale data and
enable more accurate sales pipeline forecasting for all
types of companies.
The Smart Techie
|14| January 2011
Intel’s new Atom E600 series processors
Intel launched Atom processor E600 series, System-on-Chip (SoC)
technology based processor in India. According to Intel, these
processors with their open interconnect allows easier pairing with
a various input/output devices. Intel South Asia Embeded & Com-
munications Group Managing Director (Emerging Markets), Sanat
Rao said that the E600 series is ideal for applications such as in-
vehicle infotainment systems, internet phones and smart grid de-
vices.
The processor, earlier codenamed ‘Tunnel Creek’ put together
additional capabilities onto the chip and accelerates connectivity to
the internet. The main benefit of the E600 series processor seems
to be its high performance on optimum power, enabling the small
form factor devices to be built on the chip. The total cost of the
material is also reduced due to the chip’s compact design.
Some of the third party vendors are optimizing the chip for
various embedded applications. OKI Semiconductor for in-vehi-
cle infotainment and telecommunications terminals, Realtec Semi-
conductor for connected services gateways and medical devices,
and STMicroelectronics for in-vehicle infotainment systems, are
among the few.
Juniper to expand Indian Excellence Center
California based network solutions vendor Juniper Networks plans
to expand its India Excellence Center (IEC) by adding 750 seats
with 450 equipment racks at a new site in Bangalore over the next
two years. The new office will be located at Bangalore’s new Pres-
tige Exora Business Park and is being developed in two phases.
This expansion is part of Juniper’s plan to continue its expansion
in India.
The IEC participate in activities including hardware and soft-
ware development, test engineering, field trials, program manage-
ment, quality assurance, technical documentation and product line
management. IEC also provides 12-hour-a-day global customer
support covering all Juniper products and operates a Finance
Shared Services Center, which delivers functions to Juniper Fi-
nance, an open network infrastructure that allows financial service
organizations to keep up with business requirements in a rapidly
changing environment, organizations across the world.
“Any Product that Juniper ships today will have a substantial
amount of its work done in India,” said dhar Sarathy, Managing
Director of IEC, Juniper Networks. Currently their India Excel-
lence Center (IEC) in Bangalore employs 1,800 staff and 300 de-
velopment partners. “This expansion reflects our ongoing
commitment to increasing the depth of experience and expertise in
the India region, which is becoming increasingly important not
just as a source of engineering talent but also as a fast-growing
market for Juniper Networks,” said Sarathy.
Digital Vidya Camp: How to leverage social networks’
potential for businesses
Based on expert opinion social net- Why do we need to have social
works are the next big things in the media marketing? How can it help us
business world. In the U.S. compa- to improve the business? What
nies have already realized this and should be the approach and what are
the social networks are spreading in the ways it can be structured? These
the business world like wild fire, but are the normal set of questions that
Participants engrossed in discussion
Indian companies are still shy. Indian arises into one’s mind and the camp
companies for some reason try not to proved to be an opportunity to get
mix social networks and business, these questions answered. It also pro-
and as a result are not leveraging the vided the attendees with an opportu-
huge potential of the medium effec- nity to be the early player to leverage
tively. Pradeep Chopra, Co-founder the advantage of social marketing
of Digital Vidya, and his team took media and also gave them an under-
this as their milieu when they organ- standing on which channel one have
ized their event on Social Media to select to engage more on Twitter,
Marketing. “In India, people have Facebook, LinkedIn or any other
still not understood the power of so- platform, and the different ways to Associate Architect at Yahoo!, Jessie
cial media and that’s where the op- strategize the marketing campaign. Paul, CEO - Paul Writer Author of
portunity is,” said Chopra. The speakers in the camp in- No Money Marketing, and Gaurav
What is Social Media Marketing? cluded Pradeep Chopra, Manas Garg, Dublish, Director, Wildcraft India.
Cisco’s new VXI and Cius HP Network University all set to create
Tablet next gen IT Professionals
Cisco launched Cisco Virtu- HP in association with International Institute of Information
alization Experience Infra- Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) launched HP Network Uni-
structure (VXI), a system that versity. Based out of the IIIT-B campus in Electronic City, the
addresses the current state of university will allow IT professionals to advance their knowl-
fragmented solutions with edge in the delivery of next-generation enterprise networks.
complicate virtual desktop The university will provide the tools, methodologies and
Dinesh Malkani deployment, and Cius tablet. labs to teach the latest standards in networking solutions for
Cisco VXI helps enter- both students and the employees. Spread over three to six
prises in attaining the financial, data security and work- months, the course will cover basic to advanced levels of net-
force flexibility benefits offered by desktop virtualization working, network security, consulting and converged infra-
and reduces the total cost of ownership of desktop virtual- structure. “Organizations are increasingly network dependent
ization solutions by significantly increasing the number of as they develop new ways to engage their customers, employ-
virtual desktops that can be hosted on each server. “Rather ees and partners. This brings a challenge as well as an oppor-
than deploy a parallel IT infrastructure to support virtual tunity for the IT community,” said Neelam Dhawan, Managing
desktops, Cisco VXI helps businesses take advantage of Director, HP India.
current investments by unifying data center, collaboration “We bring together expert faculty, best in class infrastruc-
and networking architectures into one system,” said Di- ture and a proven industry academia relationship. Our associa-
nesh Malkani, Managing Director-Collaboration, APAC- tion with HP will add immense value to our education system
Cisco. and bridge the gap of training between employers and academic
Their new WebEx High Quality Video turns web con- institutions,” said Prof. Sadagopan, Director, IIIT-Bangalore.
ferencing into a virtual video conferencing room, as meet- HP and IIIT-B will also establish up a dedicated lab to study
ing participants can see other participants with exceptional and analyze networking technologies. HP has already put in an
clarity in full-screen video mode. The company expanded investment of $1 million to set up the lab and is prepared to in-
this capability by extending it to mobile users through the vest more in the venture. The certification for all courses will
Cisco Cius tablet and the Apple iPad. be provided by Prometric.
The Smart Techie
|15| January 2011
 VC TALK By Bejul Somaia
Author is Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners

the recession but it also recovered very
strongly and fundamentally whether you
Financial Services & Education look at credit cards or home loans or in-
surance products the penetration is tiny
compared to any other markets including
Potential Areas
Startups
other emerging markets. This means that
In India where ever you look there
are opportunities to innovate and apply
technologies in interesting ways. The
limitations are only by the entrepreneur’s
imagination and knowledge of a sector,
so it is not fair to say that there are only

T
the head room is significant and an en- limited ways to innovate.
trepreneur has to find the right way to Entrepreneurs need to make sure that
for serve those needs.
There are opportunities for innovat-
they are solving a large painful problem.
Sometimes we see solutions looking for
ing really across the board. The power re- problems and sometimes we see really in-
lated sectors are going through a lot of teresting technologies or ideas that no one
changes now. One of our recent innova- is willing to pay for. In India the willing-
he areas we invest in India are fairly broad. Currently we focus tions is in Power Exchange. This is a ness to pay is often a challenge. That is
on four investments— power sector, financial services, edu- Bejul Somaia company that is now a couple of years why it is important to solve a large and
cation and media. These sectors seem to be reflective of the old so it is essentially a start up and it is painful problem, because if it is painful
opportunities set in India. Even though they sound like tradi- When a financial recession comes being a transparent competitive market then people will pay. Another thing is to
tional sectors we have actually invested in the non-traditional there is generally nowhere to hide, but for electricity. That is something that have a great team. This helps to increase
segments of these sectors. In these large traditional sectors there are pock- what an entrepreneur must to do is stay India needs, to create the right kind of in- your chances of success. Building busi-
ets of emerging subsectors that create a lot of opportunity for entrepreneurs. focused as if there is a large unmet con- centives for investments and price sig- nesses are not easy, it is an unnatural act to
For example, in power we are investing in the Power Exchange and in the sumer need. If you are solving it well, nals. Now this is an innovation in a very build something from nothing and so the
financial segment we have invested in a prepaid card company. Then there then over time you will be able to build a large, very mature market but still it is a human capitol that you assemble is the
is technology and technology enabled sectors like the internet and e-com- business that can survive recession. Fi- disruptive innovation that has a signifi- most prudent weapon you have. And fi-
merce, which are seeing a revival of activity. The same is the case with mo- nancial services were quite badly hit by cant impact on the industry. nally the focus should be on execution.
bile sector with the 3G and BWA rollouts.
This is a growing trend. A lot of activities are being registered around
the cloud, though it is not generally focused on the domestic market. Areas
that are gaining speed more than others would be Internet and e-commerce.
We are also witnessing a lot of activity in the education sector, not just
schools but in IP related businesses and content driven businesses. Take a
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Compiled by ST Team
A
Appnomic Systems Receives $2.5 Million in Series B Funding
ppnomic Systems, a provider
of application aware IT infra-
structure management solu-
tions to large and growing enterprises,
has closed a $2.5 million Series B
round of funding led by existing in-
vestor Norwest Venture Partners
(NVP). NVP had previously invested
$4 million in the company. “NVP has
been very supportive of Appnomic’s
growth and we are happy to be ex-
tending our relationship with them
with this round of funding,” said D
Padmanabhan, CEO of Appnomic.
The company’s total financing to date
stands at $6.5 million. The company
plans to use this series B funds to fur-
ther enhance its sales presence in the
U.S., launch operations in Europe and
enhance the application aware IT in-
frastructure management platform.
Appnomic’s Application Aware In-
i
iYogi Raises $30 Million
Yogi, the first consumer service
brand from India, has raised $30 mil-
lion in a new round of funding lead
by Sequoia Capital. With this invest-
ment iYogi will expand services outside
the existing consumer
market and the Windows
Operating System plat-
form. It will provide the
company with the capabil-
ity to extend its platform to
the global SME market
and also aggressively ad-
dress the growing need for
supporting mobile con-
sumer devices.
iYogi is the world’s
|18|
The Smart Techie January 2011
frastructure Perform-
ance Management solu-
tion has been adopted
by many customers in-
cluding one of the
largest banks in India, a
leading travel portal and
a mid-sized bank in
West Africa. Appmeter,
the cloud based version
of their solution, has
been featured on the
Rackspace and Amazon
cloud for monitoring transaction per-
formance of cloud-based applications.
Their existing clients include Red-
iff.com, Tata Business Support Serv-
ices Ltd, Tata Sky, Yatra.com, Ramco,
DataCore Software, Everest Bank Ltd,
and Karnataka Bank. They have also
acquired key U.S. customers such as
Cypress Semiconductor, Stratus ASP,
largest independent remote consumer
tech support company which has driven
an impressive 300 percent growth for its
premium annual subscription service
alone, and solved more than two million
tech problems for consumers since its
inception. The company’s existing mar-
ket includes North America, Canada,
the United Kingdom
and Australia, and with
the funding the com-
pany has plans to in-
creases its services to
other countries in the
Europe, Middle East
and India. “We have in-
vested significantly in
extending our game
changing platform-as-
Uday Challu a-service delivery
one of the leading host-
ing and cloud compa-
nies, and continue to
experience high demand
for its services offering.
The company head-
quartered in Palo Alto
also has its presence in
India with offices in
Bangalore, Chennai, Hy-
derabad and Mumbai;
D Padmanabhan Europe and Middle East.
“We believe Appnomic
continues to be well positioned to ad-
dress IT management requirements of
growing enterprises that are working
with both on-premise and
hosted/cloud-based technologies. We
look forward to partnering with App-
nomic to help grow the company fur-
ther.” said Promod Haque, managing
partner, NVP.
model and believe that we have estab-
lished the new market standard for tech
support and related services through a
consistent user experience. Our planned
expansion includes making our services
available in any geography, across any
platform, for any device, and at afford-
able price-points,” said Uday Challu,
Co-founder and CEO of iYogi.
“I believe that iYogi will be cited
amongst case studies of disruptive busi-
ness models delivering world-class
service to global consumers from
India,” said Shailendra Singh, Manag-
ing Director of Sequoia Capital India.
Apart from Sequoia Capital, iYogi’s ex-
isting investors Canaan, SVB Capital
Partners, SAP Ventures and Draper
Fisher Jurvetson, also took part in this
round of fund raising.
BUSINESS By Eureka Bharali
“I
Indian Startup Founders
Are They Serious on Sales?
f a product can not be sold factor is always about doing for the first
by the makers themselves, time. “They are initially hesitant as it takes
no sales team perhaps can time to move out of their comfort zone,”
make the sale,” says says Abhishek Goyal, Associate at Accel
Bharat Goenka, the Tally Partners. They move forward with a better
Chief. Goenka jumpstarted the accounting goal in mind and as their hands get full with also contributed immensely. So, for a
software firm by selling the first 700 prod- the other core activities they tend to side- startup it’s important that they do look at
ucts on his own, before passing on the line the sale proposition. the sales proposition of the CEOs. How-
league to a set of sales managers. But how And of course, a look at product com- ever, only if the CEO has unmatched tech
far are today’s startup founders and CEOs panies, we would see more of technocrats knowledge, sometimes sales might be
in India willing to put their hands on sales? towing the entrepreneurial line. “In terms compensated by bringing in an expert,”
“One has to sell the vision of the com- of sales and marketing, the CEO doesn’t says Gaurav Saraf of Epipheny Ventures.
pany at every point. Whether it is to the handle any of it he is a core IT person,” However, there are founders who have
employees or to the investors, the selling says an Associate VP of a learning solution plunked their hands on every possible do-
does happen. In direct selling of the prod- provider. In such a scenario, they are more main. Gautam Rage, Founder and Director
ucts, at times CEOs are not ready and rely oriented towards building a taut product of Josh Software quickly pinpoints, “We
on a more business-experienced person,” without much loopholes instead of moving make sure that either me or the other co-
says an ex-business developer of a loan across the market and making the sales founder are the only ones who become the
startup. pitches. “When we as VCs look towards face of the company while doing sales. In-
What is not realized, if one has a com- investing, the company needs to have an fact, at times, we tend to work on the prod-
pany, one is in some way or the other in- amiable CEO. Look at every big product uct development, do the coding and at the
volved in selling whether in a conventional firm, Sony, LG and you can see the CEOs same time make time for proper research
or in an unconventional way. The deterring with significant sales experience and have to pitch in for sales”.
Platinum Sponsor Gold Sponsor
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COVER STORY
The mobile industry has al-
ways been the biggest driver of
entrepreneurial ecosystem in
India, earlier with Mobile VAS
COVER STORY
Indian market a decade ago,
Nokia continues to rule the mo-
bile handset market with a 49.2
percent hold in terms of revenue

Forum Nokia
Enabling
(example OnMobile, mCheck,
AdMob) and now a bigger push
seems to be from Mobile App
development. The app develop-
ment is one area which has
share. And with its global devel-
oper community and support pro-
gram, Forum Nokia, the
company ensures that its reach
across the developer community

Developers
hooked every one from an indi- in India is as wide and in depth as

Smart
vidual developer to a startup to it is with the consumers. The fact
an established mobile solutions that India is one of the top five
company. With a plethora of plat- markets for Ovi, it is understand-

I
forms like iPhone, Andorid,
BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows
CE, Palm, MeeGo, the play-
ground is wide open for Indian
Mobile developers to test their
skills.
By Vimali Swamy One of the first entrants in the
able why Nokia is bullish on the
developer community here. And
ensuring this is Sunil Rao, Head
of Forum Nokia in India.
Of the 62.4 million smart-
phones shipped globally,
Nokia’s market share with its

t is an era of unprecedented of growth for smartphones with 62.4 mil-

lion smartphones having been shipped globally in second quarter of
2010. It is an era of unprecedented mobile connectivity with people
using their mobiles to access email, IM, VOIP, and social networking
sites. According to a report by Morgan Stanley, in the next four years,
number of people accessing the internet from their mobile will be much more
than those accessing Internet from their PCs or laptops. It is an era of un-
precedented device convergence from maps, games, photos, camera, video
OVI Store Trivia
 Ovi Store attracts 3.5 million downloads a day, with an average of
2.6 apps downloaded per visit.
 About 90 percent of Ovi Store traffic converts to downloads.
 Of Ovi Store's signed-in users, 85 percent are repeat visitors.
 Each active user averages 8.5 downloads per month.
Sunil Rao
 Active users represent more than 190 countries.

and everything else coming to one single device. It is an unprecedented era of
adoption of the apps. Analysts predict that by end of 2012, 50 billion apps
will be downloaded globally. These statistics bring color a rosy picture for the
mobile market globally. And the case in India is no different, the future looks
 Games are No. 1 among paid downloads, and apps are No.1 among
free downloads.
 40 percent of the content downloaded are games and 30 percent are
apps.
 In India, the top apps downloaded are Utilities followed by Games

equally promising. At 15 million mobile users being added monthly, the In-
dian mobile industry is hot on the radar of OEMs, operators and mobile en-
trepreneurs.
and Entertainment
 90 percent of Ovi Store users have Ovi Store in their local lan-
guages.
 Publishers from more than 90 countries distribute their content
through Ovi Store.
 400,000 new Forum Nokia developers were added in the last 12
months.
 92 publishers have over 1 million downloads each on Ovi Store.
 Ovi Store supports 135 devices models, including 80 Symbian device
models.
 Touch devices account for 6 of Ovi Store's top 10 downloading device
models: 5800 XpressMusic, N97, N97 mini, 5530 XpressMusic, 5230
Nuron, and X6 where available.
 The 10 most active countries are (in alphabetical order) China, Ger-
many, India, Indonesia, Italy, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the U.K.
and Vietnam.
 Over 80 percent of Ovi Store users can purchase content from Ovi
Store using their local currencies.
 More than two-thirds of customers choose the mobile-billing pay-
ment option in countries where it's available.
 With support for 30 languages, 90 percent of visitors are using their
local languages in Ovi Store

Symbian OS stood at 43.5 percent
followed by others. Its Ovi store
today clocks 3.5 million downloads a
day. Though it is comparatively be-
hind world’s biggest app store, Apple
iTunes Store that has over 300,000
third-party applications available on
it and has hit 7 billion download mark
as of October 2010, Nokia is not per-
turbed. “We are not chasing numbers
of total apps downloaded or available
in the store but rather empowering the
developers,” says Purnima Kochikar,
VP for Forum Nokia and Developer
Community.
Engaging the Developer
Community
In just a few years of its launch,
Forum Nokia has managed to quickly
grasp the interest of developers across
the world, especially India. To ac-
tively engage with the developer
community, it runs a multitude of
programs, the major one being “Call-
ing all innovators”, a global devel-
Calling All Innovators: Indian Developers hit jackpot
Toddler Tutor – Runner-up at Calling All Innovators
Green Phone – Runner-up at Calling all Innovators
Hackathon
2008 in Eco-challenge Category
Developed by Delhi based Spice Labs, Toddler Tutor
An S60 application maximizing battery life through
is a talking app that teaches children alphabets, num-
improved regulation of device backlight, WLAN,
bers and common words. The app displays flash
Bluetooth and charger power consumption.
cards that can be swiped through and a speak button
that speaks out the displayed card. The app also in-
cludes a coloring book with lots of images where chil-
dren can select different colors to fill in.
“We are not chasing numbers
of total apps downloaded or
available in the store but rather
empowering the developers,”
oper competition that was launched in
2008. In the first year, the forum saw Purnima Kochikar, VP for Forum
almost 1,000 developers from 57 Nokia and Developer Community
countries participating in the compe-
software engineer from India. The
tition and competing for a cash award
Toddler Tutor app, a voice-based in-
of $40,000. The following years saw
teractive teaching aid app for toddlers,
close to 2000 submissions from over
ultimately created by Spice Labs
85 countries competing for the prize
bagged the third position.
purse of $250,000. In all the three
The company also holds an an-
years, Indian developers put in a
nual developer conference in India.
spectacular show, some of whom
Aimed at bringing together attendees
went on to grab top awards.
from across India to learn, share and
‘Hackathon’ is another such pro-
explore the latest in application and
gram where Forum Nokia called for
content development, integration and
developers to create an app based on
distribution opportunities for Nokia
ideas submitted from users all over the
devices and services, the forum en-
world, in 36 hours! 13 professional de-
ables developers to utilize the poten-
velopers from around the world
tial of Nokia’s Ovi Store by ensuring
worked through 36 grilling hours to
easy access to publish applications
create real applications for the new
and content to millions of Nokia de-
Nokia N8 using the Qt framework ,
vices. The conference further helps
based solely on ideas submitted by
developers acquaint themselves with
consumers during the Nokia N8 Make
dynamic technology platforms for
My App contest. One of the winning
creating truly compelling user expe-
app ideas at the 2010 Hackathon was
riences, equipping them with new
by Revathi Sreedharan, a 29-year-old
Green Plaza - Second Runner-up at Calling all Innovators
2010 in Eco-challenge Category
Developed by Webdunia.com , Green Plaza is an innova-
tive Green application where individuals can test their
everyday life, know their carbon footprints and get learn-
ing tips/hints to maintain an eco-friendly lifestyle. Appli-
cation is well categorized to check out emerging 'Green'
conceptions and technologies that will change the way we
live. Users can play an interesting green Quiz and can get
quick Go Green Tips that assist to reduce carbon foot-
prints and help people to make environment sound deci-
sions in day-to-day life.
from around the world. With its ven-
Qt: The ‘cute’ software for Developers ture fund arm Nokia Growth Partners
The Nokia Qt is a single, easy-to-use software developer kit for rapid develop-
founded in 2004, the company offers
ment, testing and deployment of native applications for millions of Nokia smart- growth-stage fund to mobile startups
phones and mobile computers around the globe. Nokia has multiple platforms to across U.S., India, China, and Eu-
serve different purposes and address different markets. Its Symbian platform is rope.
known to bring in smartphones to the masses having more than 40 percent of the
global smartphone market.
The forum also works closely
The primary benefits of Qt SDK are productivity (ease of use) and distribution with the local developer communities
(cross platforms). For instance, if a developer wants to access specific feature of like the Mobile Monday in India and
Symbian or MeeGo devices to further differentiate their application the Nokia Qt actively supports several mobile de-
SDK enables them to integrate the Symbian and Maemo SDK and make use of
any other the APIs these platforms offer in their application. Additionally, Qt will
velopment events including the Sili-
play in bridging the gap between Symbian and MeeGo, the open source mobile op- conIndia Mobile Application
erating systems that Nokia uses on its phones. Mobile Qt applications can support Conference among others. Apart from
the two operating systems, which means that the third-party application develop- the events, the company is also ac-
ers won't have to write their software twice if they want to reach users of both
tively engaged in simplifying its de-
platforms.
veloper platform and recently its new
Nokia has been constantly innovating to aid developers and ensure that they
Qt (pronounced as ‘cute’) SDK (Soft-
have the right platform to maximize downloads of their applications irrespective of
the operating system in use. As per the Nokia’s developer strategy, Qt is one such ware Development Kit) for develop-
cross-platform application and UI framework that is the sole development platform
ers. This software makes it simpler
for Nokia smartphones moving forward, enabling the developers reach hundreds of
and less laborious for developers to
thousands of smartphones with one development platform.
Post the introduction of the Qt application; developers have seen a 70 percent create an app by reducing the number
reduction in code – saving development time, project costs, language international- of lines required to write a code by
isation, and code maintenance. Using Qt, developers are able to write web-en-
about 70 per cent.
abled applications once and deploy them across desktop, mobile and embedded
“Mobile Applications is making
operating systems without rewriting the source code.
its way to be an inseparable part of a
skills, new connections, and new this will be the first step in creating a
mobile users life and it is this that will
ideas to create future technologies. highly collaborative ecosystem that
drive the next wave of mobile entre-
The conference also has information will grow and thrive by sharing best
preneurship. At Nokia, we do not look
sharing sessions by Industry, Busi- practices and setting a high bar for in-
at app development as a technology
ness and Technology experts. novation,” says Kochikar.
differentiator anymore but rather our
“The convergence of mobility and Other programs include Forum
focus is on understanding the chal-
the internet is creating unprecedented Nokia Launchpad, a program de-
lenges from a developer stand point
opportunities to create innovative mo- signed to accelerate mobile applica-
and in return help them understand the
bile apps that transform the way we tion development for companies and
facts, feelings, interactions and prob-
live and access information. The In- individual developers in order to ele-
lems that a consumer may potentially
dian developer is uniquely positioned vate their business visibility through
face and the role of all the stake hold-
to leverage this opportunity. Forum Ovi store;Forum Nokia PRO, an invi-
ers in the value chain. At the end of
Nokia is excited about partnering with tation-only program for companies
the day, we want to empower every
and supporting this vibrant community and Nokia growth partners currently
mobile app developer and make him
of developers to find success not only working with it; and Forum Nokia
realize the opportunities that are out
in the Indian market but also in the Champion, a recognition and reward
there for him This is what Forum
markets worldwide. Conferences like program for top mobile developers
Nokia is all about,” explains Rao.
Nano Ganesh – Winner of Calling all Comics Creator – Winner of Calling PlanEasy2D - Second Runner-up of Call- Socially - Most downloaded social app on
Innovators 2008 in Emerging Mar- all Innovators 2010 in Entertainment ing all Innovators 2010 in Productivity Ovi Store
ket Category Category Category Developed by Bangalore based Antarix,
Developed by Ossian Agro Automa- Developed by Nextwave Multimedia, Developed by InfiMatra Technologies Socially utilizes the rich data emerging
tion, this application allows farmers it is an easy-to-use mobile applica- Planeasy2D application allow users to from your social networks to enrich your
in India to establish remote contact tion that allows you to create your start drawing rooms and walls of their phone's Address Book, Calendar, Cal-
with distant, modem-equipped elec- own comics, cartoon strips, photo dream home in the dimension of their lerID, Idle screen and more. Available on
tric irrigation pumps , to check on journals, and more. With this applica- choice on a sq.ft , on a basic blank screen Ovi Store since August 2010, the app has
power supply and pump operation tion, you can turn your ideas into a of their mobile or desktop. One can also seen over a million downloads.
without the need to travel long dis- comic format that you like, and share use it to draw floor plans, building exit
tances . it with your friends. plans and other plans easily and quickly
 Forum Nokia Developer Conference

Ovi Apps categories downloads split for India

“Two out of every three con-

sumers will choose to pay for Retail Revenues by Category
their downloaded apps via their
operator rather than through
their credit card”
Kenny Mathers, Head of Developer
Relations, at Forum Nokia Asia-Pacific

91 telcos in 27 markets to introduce op-

Ovi Store: What is in store for the In-
dian Developers?
The OVI store is the ultimate Mecca for
the developers working on the Symbian
platform as it decides the fate of an app.
In order to make it developer friendly,
the company has ensured that the entire
engagement process is hassle free and
the user friendly. Also it has been proac-
tive in increasing the revenue margin for
developers, for example in Singapore,
in carrier-run app store, the mobile op-
erator takes 50 percent of the total earn-
ings each time an app is purchased and
billed through the telco. While develop-
ers take the remaining 50 percent, their
cut has to account for bad debt and local
sales tax, resulting in lower revenue
margins overall, he said.
Nokia, however, has “simplified” its
revenue-sharing system to assist devel-
opers who might not have the experi-
ence of dealing with such billing
complexities. This system, which the
Finnish handset maker describes as
“flat-rate revenue share”, ensures de-
velopers take home at least 60 percent
of the gross price of an app even after
local sales tax has been deducted.
“With this program, developers stand
to benefit from (receiving) over 50 per-
cent more revenue share (compared to
a carrier-run app store),” explains Rao.
Besides touting potentially higher
revenue streams, Nokia has also been
enhancing its “ultra-local” strategy to
create additional value for developers.
This strategy leverages the company’s
global marketing reach to bring local
apps to an international audience as well
as increase the visibility of local apps
according to the user’s location.
Nokia has implemented location-based
features into its Ovi Store to help mo-
bile users discover locally relevant apps
much easier. This is done through the
company’s TopApps tool which will
push local apps to users based on the
country they are in. Ovi Store, which is
preinstalled in Nokia devices, will also
showcase a “local apps” tab to improve
the app discovery process.
For an easier billing purpose, Nokia
has inked partnership agreement with
erator billing mechanisms in the Ovi
Store of these markets.Within the re-
gion, all mobile carriers based in Singa-
pore, Australia and Thailand have
integrated their billing systems with the
Nokia app store to provide a more
seamless end-user experience. The sig-
nificance of such a billing service is that
not every customer is comfortable using
their credit card to pay for apps, which
is the system Apple’s iTunes and
Google’s Android Market currently uti-
lize. Furthermore, credit card usage is
not high among the emerging markets,
particularly for rural communities. With
OVI, users can still access apps by pay-
ing for the apps through prepaid or post-
paid accounts with local operators.
Kenny Mathers, Head of Developer
Relations at Forum Nokia Asia-Pacific,
notes that two out of every three con-
sumers will choose to pay for their
downloaded apps via their operator
rather than through their credit card.
“The convenience that consumers ex-
perience through an operator billing-in-
tegrated app store will result in 13 times
more the volume of sales than credit
card-based app stores,” he says.
This provisioning of an alternative
payment system to credit card billing by
integrating operator billing services into
their app stores, is yet to be done by ri-
vals like Apple, Google and Research in
Motion (RIM) have yet to integrate
Google and RIM, though, are currently
working to offer such arrangements.
For the Indian market, the company
is going one step ahead by launching a
separate circle of operator billing. Also
Rao notes, “In an emerging country like
India, we cannot compeletly depend on
OVI store in terms of distribution. One
of the biggest advantage in India is the
retail outlets. Today there are 100,000
Nokia retail outlets and in a year’s time
we will be selling apps out of retail out-
lets. Also OVI will soon launch billing
in INR too.”
Today, with these initiatives in
place, Nokia is aiming to drive the
thriving developer community and
become the most preferred app devel-
opment platform for developers.The
fact that Forum Nokia saw 400,000
developers join in 2010 alone indicates
its success amongst the developer
community.
Just as the company had reached
out to all levels of consumers - from
rural India and urban India to student
populace to avid gamers to corporates,
Forum Nokia hopes to cut across the
psyche of mobile developers across
the world and encourage the growing
mobile entrepreneurial ecosystem, es-
pecially in India. And this does not
seem to be an unachievable task.

The Smart Techie

|24| January 2011 The Smart Techie
|25|
January 2011
 >>>> >>>>Most Promissing Mobile App Companies

Wirkle
Most Promissing Mobile App Companies

Mobile App ost Promissing

Carving a Niche in Mobile

M
Software Development Varun Khurana
Companies By Hari Anil

obile phones are rana, Sunil Goyal and Lomesh more relevant, not all have been
becoming much Dutta to develop a platform to opti- able to pick it up as a serious prac-
more powerful in mize the web and bring it to the tice. For the bigger companies it is
their capabilities mobile, it initially began as product too small to be a focus area at this
and higher data development company but entered time and for the smaller ones, it is
connectivity; the data based mobile the services segment in 2006. hard to demonstrate it without a
applications that allow users to do Today, they provide services rang- track record. This puts us in a sweet
various things on the go are prolif- ing from social networking, instant spot.” says Varun Khurana, Co-
erating. Mobile applications are messaging, location based services, founder and CEO, Wirkle Tech-
seeing an increased push in the con- multimedia streaming, banking, en- nologies.
sumer as well as in the enterprise terprise applications, payments to The company tremendously val-
Name Founded CEO Description
Dot Com Infoway
segment. Blackberry, iPhone and barcode scanning and many more. ues its employees and considers
A multinational Information Technology company that does Mobile Applica-
Chennai, Tamil Nadu 2000 C.R. Venkatesh
tion Development and Marketing. The company's headcount is above 300.
android based phones are leading With an impressive list of big plat- them as its greatest strength. “We
www.dotcominfoway.in
Divum
Bangalore, Karnataka 2008 Vaideeswaran Sethuraman
A mobile application development startup which works on iPhone, BlackBerry,
Nokia, Android and Samsung. The company operates with around 50 employ-
the market now. While blackberry forms like iPhone, Blackberry, An- strive to create a culture where peo-
www.divum.in ees. continues to be the dominant player droid, Symbian and Windows ple are passionate about what they
HiddenBrains
The company provides custom software development, Mobile App Develop-
in the enterprise segment, iPhone Mobile for whom they develop ap- do, to have fun and treat others with
San Jose, California 2003 Vikash Chhawchharia
ment, and offshore IT outsourcing services. and Android are dominating the plications, this Delhi based com- dignity.” says Khurana.
www.hiddenbrains.com
consumer segment with a wide pany has carved a niche for itself. While mobile is an upcoming
range of mobile apps available via Using their patented technology area, it also comes with many chal-
Interworld Commnet
A web designing company by orgin, later ventured into web app development
Chandigarh 1998 J K Menon
their app stores. Taking advantage frameworks they provide low cost lenges. Mobile projects can mislead
and mobile app development.
www.innovativepeople.com
NEX G Exuberant Solution
The company offers software solutions, technical consultancy, expert man-
of this fast growing market is and high quality offerings with a company in a direction when they
NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh
www.exuberantsolutions.com
2002 S.S.Bhowmick
power, and technical training in mobile communication technologies. Wirkle Technologies, a software lesser time to market. are working on a lot of small proj-
A customer engagement technology solution provider devloping solutions
development company with spe- According to International Data ects which do not justify the
o2s360
Bangalore, Karnataka 2010 Vaibhav Tewari
which can be used to build and manage customer database, keep in touch cific expertise in building mobile Corporation (IDC), the number of process overhead, have lower mar-
o2s360.com
with customers, run and manage multichannel marketing campaigns, and
measure service quality.
applications and solutions across downloaded apps is expected to gins and don’t result in continuous
Robosoft A mid-sized software company specializing in C/C++/Java product develop-
the various handset platforms, grow from 10.9 billion worldwide revenue. To challenge this Wirkle
New Udupi, Karnataka 1996 Rohith Bhat ment for Mac OS and Windows, providing software product development across various wireless operators, this year to 76.9 billion in 2014. have is now focusing only on big-
www.robosoftin.com services andf top-notch games for different Mobile platforms. across geographies as well as That will translate into mobile app ger, longer term projects that would
RockeTalk
The company created a social media platform and mobile phone client appli- across various client server tech- revenues surpassing $35 billion in result in repeat business. The com-
nologies. The company’s unique 2014, which shows the exponential pany also seems to have big plans
San Diego, California 2005 Rajiv Kumar
cations that provide a variety of fast, easy-to-use multimedia services.
www.rocketalk.com
United Mobile Apps
proposition is its focus on mobile growth phase this market is going for the future. “Mobile continues to
Bangalore, Karnataka 2009
Arun Samudrala (Co-
Founder & President
A privately held company that develops intelligent solutions for next genera-
tion wireless devices by focussing on end user needs.
and the great track record it has as through. This gives a huge oppor- grow as a business / consumer need
www.umobile.in
a company in this space with multi- tunity for mobile application and and we are one of the leading com-
Wirkle A software development company with expertise in building mobile applica- ple applications on various app solution development companies panies in India in this space and
stores of blackberry, android and like Wirkle. “While almost every aim to be at the forefront of this, as
San Jose, California 2004 Varun Khurana tions and solutions across the various, handset platforms, wireless operators,
www.wirkle.com geographies as well client server technologies.
iPhone. software services company today is it continues to grow over the next
Started in 2004 by Varun Khu- seeing mobile becoming more and couple of years.” says Khurana.

The Smart Techie

|27| January 2011
Most Promissing Mobile App Companies
Interworld Commnet
I
Mobile Apps at Attractive Price on Time
ndia, with more than 680 mil-
lion mobile connections, is
now only behind China in
this regard. According to a
forecast by Informa Telecoms
& Media, the number of active mo-
bile subscriptions in India will touch
1.159 billion by the end of 2013,
making it the world’s largest mobile
market overtaking China. Inter-
world Commnet which had its in-
ception in 1998 entered the mobile
world in 2007, and is today one of
the leading web and mobile app de-
velopment company in the country.
In a short span, the company has
mastered in mobile application de-
velopment including iPhone Appli-
cations, Windows Mobile
Applications, and Applications on
Google Android for the niche mar-
kets. Its technology leverages J2EE,
J2ME, Personal Java, CORBA, and
.Net in order to provide mobile ap-
plications at attractive costs and on
time without any compromise in
quality. Its mobile application de-
velopment capabilities includes
adding a mobile device interface to
existing applications, augmenting
mobile application infrastructure
with a location-based service com-
ponent, mobile-enable existing en-
terprise applications, test mobile
applications, SyncML-based syn-
chronization of data between mobile
devices and enterprise applications,
and mobile-enabled company alert-
ing and notification services.
But despite its proven prowess,
the company is facing challenges in
setting a stable foothold in the mar-
ket. Not far after the company
The Smart Techie
|28|
January 2011
>>>>
opened into the mobile apps market
the global business world was hit by
recession. This was a severe setback
for the company as they had to bring
down the price of their apps to at-
tract customers during this period.
“We brought down the price and
lowered our margins and now even
J K Menon
By 2013, total active mobile subscriptions in
India will touch 1.159 billion, making it largest
mobile market, overtaking China
after the recession the customers are
not ready to go back to the old price.
So it seems recession is not over for
us. The tech investments have gone
up but the profitability is yet to
match up,” says J K Menon, CEO,
Interworld Commnet. “We have cer-
tain plans set in place for the next
couple of years and these will boost
our profitability by 100 percent.” he
added. The company understands
the business marketplace, current
trends and issues it faces, which is a
critical element of marketing any
company and this makes the com-
pany highly effective in the space.
Menon feels that there is a
scarcity in the availability of human
resources in India. This scarcity is
pushing companies to offer very
large packages to new recruits and
further reduce their profit margin.
He says this lack of availability of
talented people has to change in
order for this industry to bloom fur-
ther. Since its introduction into the
mobile market the company has
changed dynamically. It has hired
several new managers and in terms
of employee development has up-
graded itself with social media, and
now is among the very few compa-
nies in India who has done this. And
the working culture is also different
from similar companies. “Instead of
asking our developers to do this and
use this technology, we tell them
that this is the need of the hour and
ask them what they can do about it
and they choose a suitable technol-
ogy,” says Menon.
The company has developed
partnership with crowd funding
bodies and plans to use this for ex-
pansion purposes. It is presently fo-
cusing on Asian territory, and plans
to expand into Malaysia, Singapore
and Kuwait soon. “Indian market
still remains to be our priority and
we have plans to expand further into
this territory,” explains Menon.
M
Vijayakumar
Girish Ramdas Radhakrishnan
Dot Com Infoway:
Pioneers in Indian Mobile App Market
obile market all over
the world is in for an
all time boom. It is
almost similar to the
dotcom boom of the
1990s. Everyone and everything is
going mobile. With smart phones being
able to manage everything from busi-
ness to credit card payments, the mobile
application industry is going through a
tipping-point phase. A recent survey by
the BBC states that India has more
number of mobiles than toilets; this
marks the massive mobile revolution
that is happening in the country. In such
a climate, mobile app companies like
Dot Com Infoway (DCI) will find the
platform to innovate and experiment
with applications of diverse kinds.
Founded in March 2000, DCI came
into being after a merger between C.R.
Venkatesh founded web design firm
CRV Infotech and Girish Ramdas
headed internet company GNG Solu-
tions. Currently, Venkatesh is the CEO
and Ramdas is President of DCI, a
multinational Information Technology
company based out of India with offices
in Netherlands and the United States. In
2008, the company entered the mobile
and wireless device programming serv-
ices and formed an internal division
called DCI Mobile Studios. DCI Mobile
>>>>Most Promissing Mobile App Companies
Venkatesh C. R
Studios engages developing of apps for
multiple platforms — iPhone, iPad,
BlackBerry, Android to Windows, Sym-
bian, BlackBerry PlayBook, Samsung
Galaxy and more. “Since we build apps
in such diverse platforms, we have a
commendable knowledge and experi-
ence in the mobile app sector. We know
what sells where,” says Venkatesh.
As pioneers in this field, they have
the industry intelligence, domain
knowledge and experience to lead the
mobile revolution in India where more
users are switching to smart phones
now. Back when the iPhone platform
was introduced in India, they launched
the Galatta Cinema, the first-ever Indian
movie and entertainment magazine on
the iPhone. Today, two years later the
DCI studion has churned out several
apps, available at different app stores.
“We believe that mobile is the next plat-
form for communication and hence, a
mobile app will be the next level of
growth for them. Our official IPLT20
app is the best example of this. We have
also mobilized the film industry. The
tamil film ‘Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya’
songs (search as VTV Songs in app
store) – is the first-ever app to feature
the composition of Academy Award
winner A.R. Rahman for the movie. We
did this in association with Sony Music.
Today, we offer both Mobile Applica-
tion Development and Mobile Applica-
tion Marketing. Many tend to think that
you can see ROI when you build a great
app. Never. The app is profitable only
when you market it. Mobile apps mar-
keting is a must to reach your target
users,” says Vijayakumar Radhakrish-
nan, CTO, DCI. Their marketing style
is very unique and often viral, in which
they gauge the USP of every apps they
market and frame their strategies ac-
cordingly.
The mobile apps market is a very
competitive, dynamic, and ever-chang-
ing market where no players have any
elbow room. “You can create a break-
through in the app stores only if you
build apps that reach your target users.
An innovative and useful app that is
well-marketed makes a mark. Your app
has to be in news always to stay in
user’s minds or to get to top rankings.
Also, usability of the app is an impor-
tant aspect. If your app lacks in usabil-
ity quotient, it may fail miserably,” says
Ramdas. They keep this in check by
doing feasibility studies and competitor
analysis before they venture into app de-
velopment.
Like most players in the industry
the company also suffered from lack
of resources with necessary skills and
experience. Their HR team addressed
this challenge by hiring and training
resources. The company values its
employees highly and provides them
with Performance Linked Variable
Bonus (PLVB), health insurance,
cash incentives, and paid leaves, as
part of their motivational programs.
The company has set tall plans for the
future. “We are expanding across
continents, in both developed and
emerging markets. We have offices in
the U.S. and Netherlands and are
planning to open branches in Aus-
tralia and Singapore. We have plans
to establish our client base in the
Middle East too,” says Venkatesh.
The Smart Techie
|29|
January 2011
Most Promissing Mobile App Companies
HiddenBrains.com
T
Growing Strong in Mobile World
hough the market is still
reeling from the after-
math of the economic
crisis, the mobile indus-
try is already witnessing
an exponential growth phase and so
is the mobile apps market. The
iPhones, Blackberrys and other smart
phones are taking the mobile market
by storm, and a second colossal wave
comprising of tablets are also prepar-
ing for the same. These are not just
increasing the size of the mobile mar-
ket but also every market related to it.
The tech savvy users of these gadg-
ets are demanding more and more
mobile apps for their professional,
personal and entertainment needs.
Many of these mobile apps are actu-
ally expanding the business horizon
way further than anybody foresaw it
would reach. The workforces of com-
panies are highly mobile now and
they demand apps that help them to
do their job on the go without inter-
ruption.
Most companies that are now in
this space realized the potential of
this market only recently, where as
HiddenBrains InfoTech, a company
which provides custom Mobile App
Development, Software Develop-
ment, Web Application Development
and offshore IT outsourcing services,
had recognized the potential of these
markets as early as 2003 and today
has evolved into a prominent name in
The Smart Techie
|30| January 2011
>>>>
the IT industry. Various studies sug-
gest that the demand in the field of
mobile apps is only going to get
larger in the coming years. According
to International Data Corporation’s
(IDC) forecast the mobile apps mar-
ket revenue, which is $4.9 billion in
2010, will grow in mammoth propor-
tions and reach $35 billion by 2014.
HiddenBrains has a vast experi-
ence in mobile platforms with expo-
sure in different technologies like
IDC forecasts that the mobile apps market
revenue, which is $4.9 billion in 2010, will
grow in mammoth proportions and reach $35
billion by 2014
iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry,
Windows, Symbian and has created
multiple business solutions for vari-
ous kind of industries like eCom-
merce, Education, Community,
Entertainment, Gaming, Job Portals,
Real Estate, LMS, Restaurant, Travel
Portals, Hospitality, Retail, Whole-
sale, Communications and many
more across platforms like Web, Mo-
bile and Desktop. The company de-
velops applications that are eminently
utilized for extensive functionality in
today’s competitive corporate world
by offering offshore development
service for client’s custom require-
ments across the globe.
This vast exposure makes Hid-
denBrains divergent from similar
companies in the industry. It has de-
veloped more than 400 applications
worldwide i.e. for almost 84 coun-
tries. The company caters to the
needs of clients in different platforms
like web, desktop, toolbar develop-
ment and provides complete solu-
tions to them. This makes clients
content as their business can be ex-
posed on to different cadre of their
customers; to maximize profitability.
It has more than 2500 clients spread-
ing across the U.S., Europe, and Asia
Pacific and its affiliation directly &
indirectly reaches to several big
names in fortune 500 companies.
“We enjoy educating our clients
as this helps them save money on fu-
ture projects and also help them un-
derstand the next and biggest step,
‘Marketing’,” says Vishal Chhawch-
haria, Director & CEO, Hidden-
Brains, as he explains the working
process. He explains that the mar-
keting summary, which is a part of
their package, has helped several
clients to maximize their returns. His
From Left to Right:Pramod Sinha, Head - Business Development,
Ram Chhawchharia, C.E.O / C.T.O, Vikash Chhawchharia, MD, and
Vishal Chhawchharia, Managing Director
aim is to have 100 percent satisfied
customers and will not stop with any-
thing less than that. This care in cus-
tomer satisfaction is reflected in the
fact that 80 percent of the company’s
business comes from repetitive client
base, and the company takes true
pride in saying that their success has
truly been based on partnerships
from the very beginning.
HiddenBrains keeps the commu-
nication overhead to a bare minimum
by emphasizing on the standard
processes which has increased the
productivity and in minimizing extra
work which subsequently eliminates
future expenses. Market research is
another aspect of their research ef-
forts. These research helps the team
when they encounters some poorly
designed solution, as the team can
refer into the researches and learn
what not to do in the situation, and
thereby ensuring continuous im-
provements in process and orienta-
tion. Everyone in the company is
accountable and their own boss. “We
model this culture throughout the en-
tire company. It is important that
each of our team players feel part of
>>>>Most Promissing Mobile App Companies
The aim is to have
100 percent satisfied
customers which
validates the fact that
80 percent of the
company’s business
comes from repetitive
client base
the whole we represent. We accom-
plish this by promoting and enrolling
each of our team players in training
they seek or that can be used to de-
liver better products, adopting new
technologies based on our team’s re-
quest, and having an open out of the
box thinking,” says Chhawchharia.
The company’s focus is on strengths
rather than on weaknesses and this
has helped them to stay sharp.
Every company that runs in
today’s highly volatile business sce-
nario faces challenges. Establishing
a convincing position in Mobile Apps
development in the market has never
been a rosy expedition for Hidden-
Brains. It was a challenge for com-
pany to maintain the expectation set
by Apple and Google’s framework
and that too with a fresh team of en-
gineers. Every application is unique
and it caters to various domains;
keeping up with these domains for
every new app is a big challenge.
However, Chhawchharia believes
that ‘every challenge is an opportu-
nity’ and the company has created a
significant competitive barrier by of-
fering its applications on almost all
platforms.
Today, HiddenBrains is expand-
ing in terms of new geographies,
newer applications and services,
alongside aiming for having a differ-
ent product range in near future.
Company’s plan is to lay foundation
for these expansions by aggressively
increasing their workforce by 60 per-
cent to cater the needs of increasing
market demands. Seeing the market
size and the rate of growth, it is clear
that, with its 200 intellect work-force,
400 plus apps, and a 100 percent cus-
tomer satisfaction goal, Hidden-
Brains is in the right space.
The Smart Techie
|31| January 2011

Most Promissing Mobile App Companies
T W
Robosoft: Gaming on the Go
he IT sector has recov-
ered well after the eco-
nomic meltdown and has
started to pick up its
pace opening avenues
for development firms. With the
Smartphone revolution, platforms
like iPhone, Android and Blackberry
have created a huge demand to de-
velop on the go applications for both
businesses and entertainment. The
result is that the Mobile Develop-
ment space is expanding widely, gen-
erating a lot of revenue and has
quickly become a domain to be fo-
cused on. “Our expertise in develop-
ing applications for the Mobile
platforms has given us an edge and
because of this, we’re attracting
clients from all over the world,” says
Rohith Bhat, Managing Director &
CEO, Robosoft Technologies.
In 1996 Robosoft Technologies
started as a small startup that grew to
a mid sized company, specializing in
C, C++, and Java product develop-
ment for Mac OS and Windows, pro-
viding software product
development services to its global
clientele. The company expanded it-
self into the mobile market and took
on the iPhone platform when Apple
launched the device in 2008 and
came out with top-notch games for
clients. With the rise of other mobile
platforms like Android, Symbian and
Blackberry, they also successfully
ported these games to suit these plat-
forms.
Teams that are driven by the de-
sire to create world-class products
and applications to solve real world
problems and the R&D’s focus on
The Smart Techie
|32| January 2011
>>>>
discovering innovative solutions, to-
gether forms an integral part of the
company’s Product Development
cycle and this sets them apart from
their competition. Still in all its mar-
kets, whether it’s Windows or Mac or
Mobile platforms, the company is
facing stiff competition. “The market
is booming, so obviously the compe-
tition is cutthroat and to survive it,
we focus on strong R&D and nurtur-
ing a results-driven team passionate
The rise of varied
mobile platforms like
iPhone, Android,
Symbian, Blackeberry
has led to a larger
mobile gaming
market, increasing
both opportunity and
competition
about the working on new technolo-
gies,” says Bhat. “We believe in
making our employees feel at home
with cutting edge technology. Em-
ployees have access to a plethora of
resources and are encouraged to
learn more about their area of inter-
est. Each individual is challenged to
test their potential and come up with
ideas that’ll someday change the face
of the business,” he adds.
The most precious resources for
the company are its employees and it
continuously works on creating the
right work atmosphere that fosters
creativity. Extensive training pro-
grams are conducted to provide em-
ployees with opportunities to en-
hance their technical and
Rohith Bhat
professional skills. The company
also has an internship program with
which they mold raw talent and
grooms students into working pro-
fessionals providing them exposure
to the current technologies. “The
only thing constant in the IT indus-
try is change. With new platforms
coming up in succession, it’s a chal-
lenge to adapt to these changes and
deliver,” says Bhat about the chal-
lenges that the company faced.
The gaming industry is booming
right now and this is the best time to
be in this business. “We have plans
to get our games on other major mo-
bile platforms in the coming years.
Along with this, we also hope to ex-
pand our base of global clientage and
make Robosoft a brand to reckon
with,” Bhat says, giving an insight
into his company’s future plans.
o2s360
ith competition
multiplying geo-
metrically for
every consumer
product and serv-
ice in every aspect across the country,
knowing who your customers are,
learning what they think and keeping
them engaged is crucial for survival.
This is a lot more critical if you are to
operate across multiple locations. Over
the last few years, the Indian Retail In-
dustry has been witnessing stupendous
growth and has been acquiring cus-
tomers rapidly. Technology, today, can
play a key role in managing this
growth and the need for the hour is to
bring innovative technology solutions
to help consumer businesses reach, en-
gage and manage their customers in a
scalable and comprehensive manner.
This is the space that Bangalore based
o2s360 is eying.
Just a year old, o2s360 provides
customer engagement technology so-
lution to all multi-location consumer
products or services, including fast
food chains, beauty services, gyms and
electronics products. It provides retail-
ers with solutions to build and manage
their customer database, keep in touch
with their customers, run multichannel
marketing campaigns, and measure
service quality through reviews and
customer feedback. “Built to handle
the ground realities of Indian environ-
ment, we use mobile and social tech-
nologies to give our retail clients an
easy, scalable and cost effective way to
build customer databases, engage them
and increase repeat business,” says
Vaibhav Tewari, Co-Founder & CEO,
>>>>Most Promissing Mobile App Companies
Bringing Retail Industry
Closer to Its Customer
o2s360. “We currently support mem-
ber clubs, mobile coupons, mobile
feedback, mobile reviews and mobile
redeemable offers. We are currently
developing social versions for all the
capabilities,” he adds.
The real life experience inspired
products proved to be very
effective and useful to their
customers. Unlike its com-
petitors, whose products
take a long time to get de-
ployed and become fully
functional, the company
with a simplified rollout
model can deploy its solu-
tion in a medium sized Vaibhav Tewari
company in as less than
seven days. Be it the im-
plemented comprehensive
coupon issue, redemption
tracking processes, multi-
location review processes
or member club processes,
all can be easily managed
by a non-technical busi-
Sridhar Turaga
ness analyst, there by strik-
ing out the need to hire a
technical expert. The company be-
lieves in focusing on business results
and metrics rather than abstract value
propositions, and this has ensured the
technology works in a measurable
manner.
For Tewari, the fundamental belief
is “Business Results First” and the
same is instilled in to every employee,
whom the company considers and im-
portant part of the company’s future
vision. This has helped the team to
think big and give their best in building
the company to the next level. “We re-
ward initiative and help our employees
learn new skills as they need. Our
whole idea is to build a company with
many entrepreneurs so that at every
stage of company’s growth, we can
sustain ourselves to the next level eas-
ily,” says Tewari. The company con-
siders experiential learning
process as a very crucial
part and provides ample
time and space to experi-
ment and learn. This has
helped them to get past the
challenges that they faced in
the past.
When it comes to chal-
lenges, in the begining
o2s360 had a hard time in
convincing the businesses
on the need to better engage
with their customers. Most
of the consumer businesses
at that time believed ex-
panding to more locations
was all that was necessary
to grow. “Now with in-
creased competition and
coming out of a demand re-
cession there has been mass conver-
sion across the country on the need to
hold onto current customers and de-
light them always. The time for solu-
tions that help better manage
customers has come,” said Tewari.
Presently the company’s focus is
on Indian market as the country is pro-
viding them with excellent opportuni-
ties. Future plans include covering the
entire spectrum of customer engage-
ment and loyalty across channels, a
feat not seeming tough for this dy-
namic company.
The Smart Techie
|33| January 2011
Most Promissing Mobile App Companies
T
Nex-G Exuberant Solutions
Delivering End to End Mobile Solutions
he revolution in mobile in-
dustry is visible from the
point we wake up (by an
alarm in our mobile) to the
point we go to sleep (by
putting an alarm in our mobile). The en-
tire day we indulge in our mobile
phones and see other people doing the
same. Life without a mo-
bile phone is unimagin-
able now. The mobile is
like a life supporting ap-
paratus for us, something
we cannot live without.
Nex-G Exuberant Solu-
tions, a Noida based
company that offers soft-
ware solutions, technical
consultancy, expert man-
power, and technical
training in mobile com-
munication technologies, leverages on
this opportunity.
Their Mobile Technology Academy
provides Individual Training, Enterprise
Training and Internship Training,
whereas the Mobile Technology Solu-
tions encompasses Mobile Application
Solutions, Network Application Solu-
tions, Product Design Solutions, and
Protocol Stack Solutions. It also has a
division called the Mobile Technology
Experts, through which it executes and
implements varied technology assign-
ments for its clients. It is well versed
with mobile technologies like GSM,
GPRS, CDMA, UMTS, CDMA 2000,
LTE, eHRPD, IMS, VoIP, UMA, NFC,
WiFi, and WiMAX, for mobiles or net-
work platforms such as iPhone, An-
droid, Blackberry, MeeGo, SYMBIAN,
BREW, WinCE, Windows Smartphone,
LiMo, IN, VAS, Billing, Revenue As-
The Smart Techie
|34| January 2011
>>>>
surance, NMS and M-Commerce.
Every growing company identifies
customers as the centre piece of their
growth; more satisfied their customers
are, higher their growth percentage will
be. Nex-G keeps its focus on optimiz-
ing its customers’ investments in mobile
technology and helps their customers to
envision and shape their
future around the key
drivers of technology,
productivity and cost-ef-
fectiveness, thus keep
their customers satisfied.
“We provide complete
end to end solution in
mobile space. We are the
only company in world
with such a vast portfo-
S.S.Bhowmick lio,” says
S.S.Bhowmick, Founder
and CEO, Nex-G Exuberant Solutions.
The competition in the SME level
is comparatively less as there are not
many who can provide end to end solu-
tions in this space. Nex-G is knowledge
oriented company and it makes sure that
each and every resource in the organi-
zation is enriched with updated infor-
mation on a regular basis. Corporate
Responsibility (CR) is an integral part
of its business strategy and management
approach. Apart from various charity
works its CR also involves the adoption
of environmentally sustainable busi-
ness; it reduces its environmental foot-
print and helps its customers to do the
same.
For Nex-G, its employees are the
primary and only real asset and guar-
anties them an unparallel working envi-
ronment and quality of work. “We listen
to our employees, their suggestions and
comments and act upon them, respect
all employees’ individuality, encourage
creativeness and desire to innovate, try
our best to accommodate professional
and personal preferences of employees,
encourage learning from ones mistakes
and moving on, and totally understand
and appreciate that each employee has a
life outside work,” says Bhowmick.
Advertising or marketing the prod-
ucts properly is a very important aspect
in the success of any products, more so
in the mobile space. It is not enough to
have a good product, it is very impor-
tant to let customers know about it. It is
hard to get this covered as advertising
brings a very huge expense onboard and
most small and medium companies
struggle with budget constraints. Nex-
G successfully managed to overcome
this challenge by using social network-
ing sites and creative ideas to promote
itself. They also had problem with re-
source management, another major
challenge faced by the Indian industry,
and is working on overcoming this.
When its contemporaries are con-
centrating on the U.S., Europe, and the
Asia Pacific as their venues for expan-
sion, Nex-G is targeting the Latin
American markets and the African mar-
kets. Latin America, with 530 million
mobile connections (Wireless Intelli-
gence Quarterly World Review: Q2
2010), in the second half of 2010, sur-
passed the Western Europe and became
the second largest mobile market after
Asia Pacific. Africa has as many as 506
million mobile connections (based on
an AfricaCom DailyNews research)
now. Both these markets have enor-
mous potential to provide a huge boost
to the company’s growth.
The Smart Techie
|35|January 2011
 TECHNOLOGY
Author is National Sales Manager-Cisco,
Unified Communications – India and SAARC
E
ducation has undergone
tremendous transformation
over the last few years.
Globalization has com-
pelled educational institu-
tions to examine ways in which they
can integrate collaborative technologies
to further enhance the learning experi-
ence and improve productivity. These
tools are viewed as key assets to create
intellectually vibrant and relevant cam-
puses and attract the best students and
faculty.
The delivery of content has evolved
dramatically, and today it is possible for
teachers to post all study material, in-
cluding complete audio and/or video
recordings of lectures online, to help
students download the course material
from far away locations. Videos that
contain both educational and entertain-
ment value in podcasts, and course con-
tent posted on education channels create
a more engaging learning environment.
The Smart Techie
|36| January 2011
By Minhaj Zia
Enhancing through
Learning
Collaborative Technology
As the education process continues
to evolve, Web 2.0 and social network-
ing tools such as blogs and wikis, on-
line video repository and delivery
websites such as YouTube are facilitat-
ing collaborative learning in ways like
never before.
Collaborative learning:
Educational institutions continuously
seek ways to facilitate collaboration to
enhance teaching, research, foreign ex-
change programs, alumni relationships,
and private sector partnerships. Collab-
oration solutions enable students and in-
structors to connect anywhere they have
a network and combine voice, video,
graphics, and text to bring people to-
gether with information, and with each
other. In learning or training environ-
ments, these tools allow instructors and
students to come together over distance
and time, exchange information, study
together, and learn from each other.
Technologies like streaming video,
rich media conferencing and telepres-
ence make live distance learning situa-
tions interactive. The content is more
dynamic when the student can talk to
the instructor, ask questions, and offer
knowledge from his or her own experi-
ence. Voice, video, and web collabora-
tion tools save the time, expense, and
environmental impact of travel and
allow earning revenue from a variety of
vocational distance-learning courses.
Properly planned, such technology plat-
forms enable educational institutions of
all kinds to aid next-generation learning
safely, securely, and efficiently.
Collaboration technologies from
companies like Cisco for example,
which include TelePresence, Unified
Communications, Cisco Digital Media
solutions and Cisco WebEx, provide a
powerful audio, video and web inte-
grated virtual classroom experience al-
most mimicking a face-to-face
experience, over the internet. Such col-
laborative technology solutions expand
the learning opportunities for students
in remote regions around the world.
Teachers are able to share knowledge
either for free or for a fee.
The true benefits of technology are
in its application. An effective deploy-
ment of a network that enables aca-
demic information to flow to rural areas
can give millions of children access to
better education. A recent effort in that
direction has been made by several IT
majors who have come together for a
District Learning Centre initiative at
Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, to pro-
vide learning opportunities and IT train-
ing to the youth of the district. Using
collaborative technology, and initial
mentoring on how to use it, the students
connected with tutors in the nearby city,
who could offer special after school tu-
toring services to them and those in
nearby villages for a small fee.
The students got extended support
for English and Math while the tutors
were able to reach out to new learners
through this medium and the small en-
trepreneurial tutoring company created
a profitable business model bridging the
gap between the students and tutors.
Such models can be scaled globally
with tutoring services can be offered to
students online in a group or personal
setting in many different parts of the
world at school and higher education
level.
How it works:
Collaboration and communication tech-
nology tools offer numerous ways to
enhance the experience and effective-
ness of education. Employing rich
media conferencing offers remote stu-
dents an engaging, interactive learning
experience and helps teachers to teach
their classes from wherever they are.
Rich media tools provide an efficient,
highly secure environment for sharing
information. Students and instructors
can communicate, share documents,
demonstrate software and even annotate
documents together. Sessions can be
recorded and stored for future use, and
for students who missed the live ses-
sion.
Within a classroom teachers can use
the Cisco WebEx ‘attention indicator’
feature to monitor whether students are
giving the class their full attention.
Teachers can ask students participating
in the WebEx session to turn on ‘desk-
top sharing’ to ensure that the students
are actively engaged in the class. Edu-
cators can also collaborate and share re-
search with colleagues and institutions
scattered across the globe and educa-
tional institutions can expand their re-
search, develop professionally, and
bring additional perspectives to their in-
stitutions.
Schools and collges that are looking
for new ways to cut costs and reduce
carbon emissions can connect and share
knowledge across geographies without
leaving the campus. By taking advan-
tage of web-based meetings, training,
and conferencing capabilities, educators
can enhance communication internally
and externally to keep all members of
the education community on the same
page. They can also remove the burdens
of support and maintenance through the
WebEx Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
delivery model.
Telepresence delivers real-time,
face-to-face interaction using advanced
visual, audio through collaboration.
Distance and time differences evaporate
and collaboration among remote groups
can advance the learning process. This
helps to scale expertise, foster more
open innovation between academic and
industry researchers and develop inno-
vative distance learning programs that
benefit from in-person collaboration.
Educational institutions facing dif-
ficult challenges with fewer resources
and increasing demands can benefit
from the immersive, life-like commu-
nications experience, realistically con-
veying the body language and human
elements that are critical to the interac-
tive nature of a traditional classroom.
Tele-presence solutions help pro-
fessors address students across multiple
campuses virtually as though they were
sitting in the same room, collaborate
with other experts on academic re-
search, and bring classrooms together
across geographies. This helps to en-
gage in an interactive, face-to-face
learning environment. TelePresence
sessions can be recorded and played
back for future viewing. Such solutions
can underpin future changes in teaching
and learning environments by merging
the potential of student centered learn-
ing methodologies with interactive, rich
media to create a new form of collabo-
rative educational experience.
Educational institutions can bring
teachers and professors with specialized
expertise to students efficiently and eco-
nomically and create new educational
opportunities, such as global class-
rooms and customized executive edu-
cation programs. Virtual learning
environments created using tele-pres-
ence solutions help colleges and uni-
versities embrace environmental
sustainability goals through the reduc-
tion of travel, while extending the reach
of university experts and attracting new
students.
Going forward, technologies like
‘Cloud computing’ will help to improve
the learning and teaching experience in
universities.
Future scenario:
Collaborative technologies will con-
tinue to play an increasing role in
higher education in the 21st century.
Innovative solutions will change the
way students learn, communicate, pro-
duce, and study. On and off campus
technology solutions will help im-
prove interactions among faculty,
staff, and students. The need of the
hour is for powerful, reliable, expand-
able, and secure infrastructure with ad-
equate bandwidth, quality of service,
and storage, to disperse knowledge
seamlessly. The possibilities are
abound and they are here to stay.
The Smart Techie
|37|
January 2011
 TECHNOLOGY
The author is President & Co-Founder, United Mobile Apps
T
Evolution of Mobile Devices
and Services
he rapid growth of Mobile
usage in India is indeed
remarkable. In the past
few years, mobiles have
penetrated the most re-
mote sections of our country where
getting a landline used to be a distant
dream. This phenomenon is a reflec-
tion of the global ubiquity of mobile
phones. This decade has witnessed not
only strong proliferation of mobile
technology, but also phenomenal ad-
vances in innovation.
From being a voice only device,
the ‘mobile’ is now a personal data and
media repository. It is hard to find a
device in the market that does not have
a high resolution camera, and a pow-
erful processor. Being a convenient
handheld device with such capabili-
ties, the mobile has ushered in an era
of information and content creation
and sharing such as never before. I can
snap pictures on my holiday trip and
The Smart Techie
|38| January 2011
By Arun Samudrala
instantly share them with my friends
all over the world. mobile phones have
emerged as gateways to create, share
and consume personal content.
Two parallel developments have
contributed to the transformation of
mobiles into all-in-one information
sharing and storing devices. While the
capabilities of the devices themselves
have improved on the one hand, ad-
vances in the deployment of faster
data transfer Technologies such as 3G
and 4G have considerably enhanced
user experience on the other hand.
However, this convenience of personal
content creation and sharing is not
without limitations.
Race to grab the biggest market
share, has led device manufacturers
to focus on improving networking
and data sharing among their own de-
vices, while inter-platform data shar-
ing remains unaddressed. The
industry has several hardware and
software platforms, each vying to be
the market leader – Google Android,
Apple, Symbian, Qualcomm Brew,
Blackberry, Windows Mobile just to
name a few. In order to present a
comprehensive solution, each com-
pany has its own suite of software
that’ll enable Users to backup and
share content. Video call with Face-
time is limited to iPhone 4, Ovi is for
Nokia devices alone, Mobile Me is
for Apple devices.
Seamless data and media sharing
across devices of any make (of course
limited by their hardware capabili-
ties) is still not available. At United
Mobile Apps, we solve precisely this
problem. Our cross platform software
Unify combines a rich set of features
that leverage the native device capa-
bilities and present application devel-
opers with simple interfaces to
develop innovative information shar-
ing and distribution software that cuts
across this device-data barrier.
Unify enables individuals to not
only share their content across Mo-
bile devices, but also across desktops,
laptops and ipads. Some salient com-
ponents of Unify are – a module that
syncs data on multiple devices and
keeps them all up to date, a module
that provides an intuitive interface to
share content, a module that enables
remote management of devices.
While the industry waits to herald
a leader with a steadily increasing
share in the platform space, there ex-
ists a significant opportunity to im-
prove user experience in leveraging
cross platform capabilities and share
content regardless of the recipients
phone make.
Mobile phones have transformed
how we communicate. Now the sec-
ond wave of innovation using Mobile
phone as platform will transform
how we use computational abilities
in our day-to-day activities. The
scope of innovation in this space ap-
pears limit-less.
 TECHNOLOGY
The author is President, CEO and Founder, IntelliNet Technologies
M
Mobile Data Growth in India
an Opportunity and a Challenge
obile data continues
to grow at a phe-
nomenal rate in
countries that have
already deployed
data centric 3G networks. AT&T for
example has noted a data growth of
over 5000 percent in just three years.
Most of this growth is attributed to
high bandwidth video related services
like video chat, IP TV and access to
video content over sites like YouTube
on the Internet access. The continued
price pressure on data rates together
with an unprecedented growth in de-
mand has created a major challenge for
operators around the world forcing
them to seek ‘unconventional’ solu-
The Smart Techie
|40| January 2011
By Anjan Ghosal
technology. Both these technologies
allow data to be moved at a fraction of
the cost – though Wi-Fi can be an order
of magnitude cheaper than deploying
femtocells.
India has been late to the 3G party
but is fast catching up. Earlier this year,
seven private operators paid a whop-
ping $14.6 billion to buy 3G spectrum.
A number of operators like Reliance
and Tata have already launched their
3G services. As of end of September
2010, the wireless subscriber base in
India stood at 687.71 million, second
only to China. However, iSuppli fore-
casted that 3G will garner 250 million
subscribers by 2012.
While there are similarities be-
tween India and other 3G enabled na-
tions, there are some very significant
differences. Due to fierce competition,
voice tariffs in India are one of the low-
est in the world. The Telecom Regula-
tory Authority of India recently
reported a year-over-year decline in
Average Revenue per User (ARPU)
per month of 33.9 percent for GSM
subscribers and 19.6 percent for
CDMA subscribers. As of June 2010
the ARPU for GSM was Rs. 122
($2.71) and for CDMA INR 74
tions.
($1.64). This can be compared to an
ARPU of more than $50.00 for post
One such solution is a ‘small cell’
paid service in the U.S. Hence, to re-
approach where operators deploy fem-
cover their huge investments in 3G, In-
tocells in locations with poor cellular
dian operators will have to increasingly
coverage. The data is backhauled via
look at data services to drive revenue
the existing broadband network using
growth.
standard IP providing a more cost ef-
Indian operators do have a great
fective data coverage. The alternative
track record in generating significant
solution that is gaining favor is to en-
revenue from VAS services like ring
able the Wi-Fi radio on the user’s smart
back tones, music downloads, SMS
phone and deoliver data over that in-
and a variety of downloadable applica-
terface rather than over licenced spec-
tions. Most of these services are of-
trum like UMTS/3G. Data in this case
fered through a strong web portal as
is also backhauled via the pubic Inter-
‘premium services’. So it is reasonable
net. Studies have shown that the ma-
to assume that as 3G gains momentum,
jority of mobile data is generated by
a lot of these services will be supple-
smart phones in indoor settings which
mented by high bandwidth services
make Wi-Fi an excellent data offload
like video sharing, mobile TV, multi-
player high-definition gaming and
videoconferencing which can become
a major revenue generator for them.
Another important factor that is
likely to drive up data traffic is India is
general internet access from mobile de-
vices. While India has a rapidly grow-
ing mobile subscriber base, the low
penetration of laptops and personal
computers means that the primary
source of internet access are likely to
be mobile devices. Whatever be the
driver, the focus on mobile data is
likely to become a double edged
sword, quickly outstripping network
capacity. These factors, coupled with
the limited spectrum allocated to oper-
ators in India, may lead to a ‘perfect
storm’ where the networks get over-
whelmed.
Operators are already aware of this
problem and are actively seeking solu-
tions to this problem using offload
techniques. Femtocells are a valid
proposition for them but they are
pricey and are still not proven in the
current deployments. A more appropri-
ate solution for the Indian market is
data traffic offload to Wi-Fi networks.
With this in mind operators are look-
ing at developing Wi-Fi zones of their
own or partnering with Wi-Fi operators
and aggregators to see if some of the
data can be offloaded to these net-
works. Both, Tata Communications
and Bharti Airtel have been actively
deploying hundreds of Wi-Fi hotspots
across the country as a service to their
broadband subscribers. BSNL, Re-
liance and Spectranet are also offering
Wi-Fi Internet access.
Vikas Singh, CMO for Telemedia
Services at Bharti Airtel was quoted as
saying: “Airtel Wi-Fi hotspots will be
strategically located at leading pre-
mium hotels, hospitals, chains of
restaurants, coffee shops and corporate
buildings that are the hub of corporate,
community and social activities. For
us, this is an initiative to increase cus-
tomer stickiness and enhance average
revenue per user (ARPU) of our broad-
Levels Description
Unmanaged Offload Cellular devices (i.e. phones, dongles) detect the presence of available carrier or
partner hotspots and automatically connect to them after authentication against
the operator’s subscriber database. Traffic is routed directly to the Internet using
the Wi-Fi operator’s infrastructure.
Managed Offload Post authentication, the traffic is routed via an ‘edge’ device that is managed by the
operator. This edge device allows the operator to ‘control’ the subscriber’s internet
traffic without having to route the traffic back to the core networks. It allows
operators to implement volume based billing, enable prepaid subscribers, perform
legal intercept, enforce traffic shaping and policy controls, etc.
Converged Offload In addition to the above establish seamless connectivity with the core network – so
that as required traffic can flow between the two. The enables carriers to deliver
premium content and walled garden services to their subscribers via the Wi-Fi
band customer base.” Seamless transition between 3G
interface. This is extended to provide seamless handoff between the two networks.

In parallel with the 3G roll out, al- and Wi-Fi – no need for sub-
ternative wireless services are being scribers to manually register or
deployed to address the demand for log in to use the network
wireless Internet services. Companies  Utilization of the existing mobile
like Tikona, a recent startup, are build- billing and charging infrastructure
ing all-IP wireless networks using un-  Subscriber access to secure con-
licenced spectrum. The technology, tent provided by the mobile oper-
referred to as WI-BRO - a variation of ators – known as “walled garden”
WiMAX, is built on meshed network- services
ing routes traffic over wired and wire-
lessly meshed access points. The However, some work must be
iSuppli study forecasted a subscriber done to implement this functionality.
base for such services to reach 19 mil- Based on the operators’ requirements
lion by 2012. we have classified them into the fol-
lowing three categories.
The Telecom The 3GPP and 3GPP2 standards
Regulatory
bodies have published specifications
for these techniques and some compa-
Authority of India nies have developed products to en-
recently reported a
able seamless integration of Wi-Fi and
Cellular networks. IntelliNet has been
year-over-year actively involved in a commercial trial
decline in Average
with a leading edge operator in India
and the initial results are promising.
Revenue per User
However, successful deployment of
(ARPU) per month of
this solution will require the vendors
and the operators to work closely to
33.9 percent for GSM
implement a complete end-to-end so-
subscribers and 19.6
lution which will not only address the
technological aspects but also all the
percent for CDMA
operational issues in deploying this
subscribers
service such as the integration with the
backend OSS systems.
This technology will not only as-
By deploying a Wi-Fi data offload sist operators with 3G licenses offload
solution, mobile network operators can their excess traffic but also will help
provide: operators with 2G licenses to provide
 Improved coverage and Quality of their subscribers a 3G-like experience
Service (QoS) for mobile data sub- - and do so at a fraction of the cost of
scribers deploying 3G infrastructure.
The Smart Techie
|41|
January 2011
 TECHNOLOGY By Gary Bahadur
The author is CEO, KRAA Security
S
Security Challenges in Using
Social Media
ocial media sites have
gained popularity in the past
ten years as a medium to
keep in contact with loved
ones, business associates
and friends. However, there can be
drawbacks to the usage of the said media
when one is employed in certain career
fields, such as the healthcare industry.
Utilizing social media networks can in-
advertently give way to the sharing of
confidential patient information with
people that may not have a need to know
which would then cause the company to
violate HIPAA Security Rule compli-
ance. The compliance risks increase with
uncontrolled social media utilization.
Social Media has become part of the
user community several years ago.
Today we have social media in the cor-
porate environment. The main prob-
lem we have is how social media has
evolved. It has evolved to become a
bottom up approach. By bottom up I
mean that the consumer has determined
how to use a technology and the corpo-
ration is playing catch up. But the social
norms that are appropriate for a con-
sumer “product” are not appropriate in
a corporate environment.
Social media applications are not
just a part of one’s personal lifestyle;
this has also become incorporated in
the corporate climate. Many places
use social media applications for
marketing, file sharing, commu-
nication, and employee recruit-
The Smart Techie
|42| January 2011
ment. While these applications can open
up a great many doors for communica-
tion, some form of guidance or gover-
nance is necessary. Because banning the
use of such sites is most likely unen-
forceable or impractical, a hospital or
other such entity that must shield private
information should at least ask or force
their employees to adhere to some So-
cial Media Policy guidelines.
We can take a lot of security re-
quirement from traditional IT secu-
rity practices. For instance, when
utilizing social networking
sites, one should use separate
passwords for the different
sites, as an individual
can easily hack
all of one’s accounts if they know the
one password. A security breach of one
account could snowball. Passwords
should be complex and change every 90
days. Accessing social media sites
should be over SSL and only from
trusted network connections, not coffee
shops especially for business purposes!
When looking at confidential infor-
mation, apply the same security require-
ments. A company would let an
employee send out confi-
dential information to
someone who didn’t
have authority
to read it, so when using social media
sites, do not let your employees post in-
formation that is confidential. In order to
block them from doing that, you have to
have social media monitoring tools in
place to actually know what information
employees are posting on the Internet
Another thing one should not do is post
his or her own identifying information
publicly, such as date of birth, his or her
social security number, or an employee
ID number. If a site requires this infor-
mation, 1) it is most likely not a rep-
utable site, and/or 2) one could make
something up or ensure that it is not
going to be displayed in a profile that
will be public. If your employees post
too much personal information about
themselves and your company, this
could entice an attacker to try and gain
access to your company with the infor-
mation the employee has posted.
Some information may not be con-
sidered confidential; yet not posting
these items to public social media sites is
probably a good idea. This can include
anything from rumors, to purchases the
company plans on making, anything
about the technology one’s company
uses or will use, and any projects the in-
dividual may be working on. Develop
and follow practical posting guidelines
and do not share more information than
is necessary in corporate social media
activities.
If an employee’s personal posting
about the company can be considered
defamation or are targeting a customer
or competitor, HR has to know to take
action even if it’s difficult to measure
the value of defamation. Laws already
cover the social media posts of em-
ployees when it comes to things like
defamation, confidentiality and intel-
lectual property theft. There should be
some level of monitoring off hours
postings by employees.
Employees should be made aware
through training and written social
media policies that the company will be
monitoring for confidential and propri-
etary information and activities such as
defamation. Employees have to be
made aware of the polices on the cor-
porate brand image, intellectual prop-
erty, who they friend, who they
endorse, customer information, and
other confidential information. Human
resource monitoring should be strictly
controlled. It can go wrong as was the
case in 2006 when Hewlett Packard il-
legally used pretexting to gain infor-
mation on employees. A number of
senior managers were in trouble over
the poor judgment in how to manage
employee monitoring.
Social media usage is being retro-
fitted into the corporate environment.
But the consumer is already used to
using social media in an insecure, “in-
formation must be free” manner. Em-
ployees who have been used to giving
up all their information in places such
as Facebook and Twitter must now be
retrained to use social media in a whole
different manner to meet corporate
standards. (Assuming we have a corpo-
rate standard for social media security)
But what is a corporate standard for
using social media in an appropriate
fashion that does not put the company
at risk? Corporations have not made a
concerted effort to define that secure
social media strategy, or even a strategy
for training their employees in the “cor-
rect” use of social media. A social
media policy is required to address all
the concerns about employee posting,
training in appropriate usage and mon-
itoring and reporting of social media
activity.
Social Media Policy Infrastructure
What is a good starting point for im-
plementing a social media policy? Here
is a basic guideline.
1. Define a policy – You cannot assume
employees will do the right thing with-
out guidance. You already have things
like Expense Policies, Acceptable Use
Policies, and Internet Use Policies.
Write a basic guideline. What’s in that
guideline will vary from company to
company.
2. Information Classification – You
have to explicitly define what informa-
tion can be shared and what information
should not be Tweeted or FaceBooked.
If your employees do not know how
valuable information is then you cannot
blame them for inadvertently being
sucked into the blogosphere.
3 Keep It professional – If you allow
your employees to Socialize information
about your company, you have to give
them standards to follow. Things like
cursing, grammar mistakes, casual con-
versation style discussions might not be
the image you want to portray when dis-
cussing anything related to your com-
pany.
4. Tracking and Monitoring – If you
are going to have a policy, you have to
have a mechanism for tracking compli-
ance, reporting on activity and have con-
sequences for breaking that policy.
Conclusion
A baseline set of requirements has to be
agreed upon between IT and HR and
Legal departments to implement a se-
cure social media strategy. This list of
requirements can include:
 Defining the necessity for monitor-
ing community managers and em-
ployees use of social media
 Understand and update security
threats to social media platforms
used by the company and monitor
employee activity on affected plat-
forms
 Monitor reaction and change in be-
havior based on training
 Monitor sites mentioning the com-
pany
 Track tools used by employees in
social media usage
 Monitor activity of other organiza-
tions in your industry
 Monitor and report on what online
communities are saying about your
company
 Track the influencers in your indus-
try and those specific to your brand
 Monitor your competitor’s use of
social media
The Smart Techie
|43|
January 2011
 TECHNOLOGY By Sunny Rao
The author is MD - India and South East Asia, Nuance Communications
“3G & SPEECH”
RECONNECTING INDIA
Now that the 3G auction is over in India and results are out, it is clear that
Indian consumers are standing at the threshold of a telecom revolution.
3G has the potential to immensely impact
almost every individual, both socially and
economically. Recognizing that, all eyes
are trained on how 3G in India opens the
door to innovative value added services al-
lowing everything to be accessed though
just one convergent device.
In a country, where broadband pene-
tration is less than one percent, ironically
mobile penetration is 45 percent. Infact, in
a recent Google report, India has emerged
as the second largest consumers of mobile
Internet after U.S. To add another per-
spective to these facts, Evalueserve (‘Up-
take of 3G services in India’) reports the
number of 3G handsets will increase to
395 million by 2013.
An indication, that in terms of reach
and penetration, mobile internet along
The Smart Techie
|44|
January 2011
with 3G will become the chief vehicle for
connectivity.
3G powering speech technology - tran-
forming & all-embracing
Buoyed by 3G and mobile, we see many
parallel stories unfold, one of which re-
volves around use of speech technologies
to maximize the reach of mobile services.
There is a large amount of information and
content in the network. 3G in combination
with speech interface will accelerate the
access and usage of it for the masses.
As we speak about the convergence of
speech and 3G technologies and its im-
portance, the challenges are also huge.
 With a population of 1 billion and
with just 45.1 percent mobile pene-
tration, there is still a huge number we
ally diverse nation such as ours. In  It is also the most effective interface tions, combining voice, visual and audio
rural and remote areas citizen infor- for blind people. They can easily interfaces on a single mobile device and
have not connected to yet.
mation services can be provided more browse on their mobile by just in a single session. Multimodal inter-
Another daunting task is overcoming
effectively by using speech interfaces speaking to it and listening to the faces can be used to search and down-

the illiteracy and dialect problems in
crossing barriers of literacy, language output with the help of TTS. load the entertainment content like
India. With the largest illiterate popu-
and infrastructure. Speech as the primary interface will music, trailers and videos on the phone
lation our rate of literacy is 65.38 per-
 Providing a huge impetus to the m- revolutionize the concept of “user with the 3G. Web search, YouTube
cent as per the last census and a
governance initiatives, Voice verifica- friendly interfaces”. We will see mobile search and driving directions are just
considerable portion of which is in
tion aspect of speech technology can devices that enhance e-mail, browsing, one click away using speech, with the
fact semi-literate or has little or no
be used for unique identification and gaming and social networking. The ex- help of ASR and TTS. 3G enables these
technology prowess.
recording attendance. Voice verifica- perience of these services on the mobile services by reducing the latency in
Also, the provision of internet in rural
tion can eliminate the cases of fake at- using speech will overcome the limita- downloading the content.

areas does not necessarily mean that
tendances in social schemes like tions of small screen sizes, incomplete
people will be able to benefit from
NREGA. keypad, unavailability of the keyboard Conclusion
any technology. There are a range of
 Speech interfaces can be used to leave and cumbersome typing. Mobile, 3G, and Speech Technology are
factors to be considered, such as the
voice tweet messages using either data For insight into how this technology bound to open infinite avenues in terms of
availability of relevant applications
or voice channel. The backend sys- can permeate all aspects of our life it is Communication Technology and are
and content in local languages.
tems use ASR to transcribe the voice important to understand how it works. going to play an extremely vital role in
tweet message to text message and There are three components of speech revolutionizing our lives. It is quite appar-
3G & Speech – Transforming & all-em-
send it as an SMS further. technology: Automatic Speech Recog- ent that the mobiles and handheld devices
bracing
 Also, people can use speech to dictate nition (ASR), Text-To-Speech (TTS), will be the choice of future communica-
The use of speech as the primary medium
their messages in social networking and Speaker Verification (SV). It is now tion. 3G will create great potential in the
to access the web through mobile and
sites. Others can listen to it with the possible to combine these three plat- Indian market and speech platforms will
handheld devices, with the momentum of
help of Text-to-speech (TTS). Users forms with mobile Internet and multi- leverage these to ensure that the web
the 3G wave will be the interface that
can listen to their friend’s messages media technology. This combination reaches to all the sections of the popula-
seamlessly binds the vastly diverse India
and postings handsfree while they are allows rapid development and deploy- tion making technology an integral, indis-
– which is illiterate, semi-literate, and also
is the on-the-go ‘tweeting’ kind.
Inspite of the challenges, 3G and
driving. ment of genuine multimodal applica- tinguishable part of our lives.
speech together have the capability to
weave itself into the texture of our every-
day lives in many forms and also across
cross-sections of our society. To give a
view of the scope of its application:
 Today, government is talking about
Financial and social inclusion through
mobile telephony to provide a variety
of services to the society. This com-
bination will now also be capable of
delivering telemedicine, m-com-
merce and distance education services
that the government has constantly
been struggling to deliver to all seg-
ments of the population. Services like
Kisan Call Center – to provide agri-
culture related queries solutions,
Weather information, complaint reg-
istrations rely on the power this com-
bination brings to telecommunication.
 Speech recognition solutions today
encompass all prominent Indian re-
gional languages, thus scaling the
challenge of reaching out to a cultur-
 TECHNOLOGY
The author is CTO, Huawei Symantec
A
Enterprise Level SAN Features
and Solutions at SMB Prices
storage area network
(SAN) comprises the
most powerful technol-
ogy available for block-
level storage and has
been used by enterprises for years. For
many small to medium sized businesses
(SMBs) though, SANs were long out of
reach due predominately to their high
cost. In addition, many SMBs simply
did not have the need for large amounts
of scalable storage space and were
therefore able to function adequately
using direct-attached storage.
Two underlying factors have
The Smart Techie
|46| January 2011
By Tad Lebeck
changed the storage landscape and have
made SANs more important and acces-
sible to SMBs. The first is the recent ex-
plosion of digital data, and the second is
the increasing availability of entry-level,
feature-packed SANs that are specially
priced and designed for SMBs.
Managing storage in an age of data
explosion
According to research firm IDC, the
amount of digital information created,
captured, or replicated in 2010 will
amount to 1.2 zettabytes (1.2 trillion gi-
gabytes). By 2020, IDC estimates this
will balloon to 35 zettabytes or, in other
words, 35 trillion gigabytes.
As a result of this massive growth in
data, SMBs will face a number of chal-
lenges in the coming years as they try to
deal with the increasing flow of infor-
mation.
First, SMBs do not necessarily have
standardized data storage, backup, re-
covery, or archiving methods. This is
due in part to cost constraints, and due
in part to existing behavioral norms.
While there is more digital content to
handle now more than ever, resources at
SMBs have stayed at the same levels.
With limited resources, many SMBs are
forced to be very cost-conscious and
might not even have someone on staff
dedicated to IT backup. Additionally, IT
staff at SMBs may not be able to keep
up with the increasing flow of data.
Given the limited resources, many
SMBs may not have developed system-
atic ways to handle backups. Disk space
is relatively cheap so many SMBs sim-
ply buy more disk space on an ad hoc
basis and neglect to consider the mo-
ment when they might need to perform
a comprehensive backup. Those who
have had the misfortune of having to re-
cover data are exposed to the nightmare
caused by haphazard backups and the
existence of fragmented information lo-
cated across multiple servers and stor-
age elements. Lucky SMBs would have
been able to recover data after spending
an excruciating amount of time, while
many more are confronted with the re-
ality that their inadequate backups have
caused them to permanently lose im-
portant business data.
Second, as the amount of data
grows, data protection becomes crucial.
Backups, as noted above, are vitally im-
portant, but additional redundancy in-
frastructure is now a necessity, given the
constant inflow of data. It is crucial to
keep the amount of time it takes to re-
cover data in case of a failure (a concept
called “recovery time objective” or
RTO) as short as possible so that down-
time is minimal. In addition, it is im-
portant to do backups frequently in
order to minimize the amount of data
that could be lost (commonly known as
“recovery point objective” or RPO). If a
SMB performs a backup at the end of a
business day but its system fails in the
middle of the next day, a half day’s
worth of valuable data is lost.
Third, data does not necessarily
equate to useable information unless it
can be easily sorted and readily ac-
cessed. Without a means to catalog the
growing amount of data, it merely be-
comes a steadily growing collection of
bits and bytes that can suffocate SMBs
who rely on manual methods to access
it. In addition, many SMBs are scattered
across multiple locales, and trying to or-
ganize and access data in multiple loca-
tions and jurisdictions can be a doubly
impossible task without the right tools.
Fourth, SMBs need to utilize re-
sources efficiently to squeeze what they
can out of their investments. This is a
key point in the context of data storage.
Preventive care is essential in order to
minimize total cost of ownership. Fail-
ure to address storage and recovery is-
sues with foresight can mean that an
SMB is one catastrophe away from en-
during a devastating loss of valuable
business information. Preventive care is
not only prudent, but it is an effective
use of resources that will maximize re-
turn on investment.
Enterprise level features and solu-
tions at SMB prices
Look around the marketplace today, and
you will see that a large number of ven-
dors now offer middle-range and entry-
level SANs that are both priced and
scaled for SMBs. SANs have become
commoditized and plummeted in price
while their feature sets have gotten bet-
ter and better. It is to the benefit of
SMBs that they learn as much as they
can about the options available in the
market.
Huawei Symantec, for instance, of-
fers the Oceanspace S2600, a next gen-
eration storage solution for SMBs that
was designed with the intention of al-
lowing SMBs to have access to enter-
prise-level technology in one small
box. It allows SMBs to reduce total
cost of ownership by buying a piece of
consolidated equipment that will keep
both long-term capital expenditures
and operating costs low. Most impor-
tantly, the S2600 provides superior
data protection with value-added, cost-
effective features such as an advanced
snapshot interface that enables SMBs
to keep RPO and RTO extremely tight.
This level of data protection was never
before even considered by SMBs, but
is now attainable; the barriers have in-
deed come down.
Vendors now recognize that SMBs
constitute a significant constituency,
and have therefore scaled their wares
accordingly. The S2600, for instance,
is both scaled down and scalable, and
can accommodate between 12 and 96
SAS or SATA disks. In addition, it of-
fers multiple options of host interfaces,
including fiber channel (FC), iSCSI, or
a combination of both. This means that
a SMB can attach multiple servers—
mail servers, database servers, file
servers, backup servers—and provide
hierarchical storage using either the FC
or the iSCSI networking mode.
This type of next generation SAN
aligns itself perfectly with both the re-
sources available to and the needs of
SMBs. The future is now for SMBs:
enterprise-level data protection that is
cost effective, secure, scalable, energy-
saving, economical, and easy to use,
install, and maintain is well within
reach.
Entry-level SAN solution for SMBs
Growth of data continues at an expo-
nential rate. Certainly, in the near fu-
ture, there will be seismic shifts in the
way SMBs approach data storage,
management, and protection in order to
deal with this reality. SMBs will begin
to explore virtualization strategies and
will try to control the tide of data
growth using data deduplication. In ad-
dition, cloud computing will play a role
in data storage, as online storage serv-
ices will become more prevalent and
affordable going forth.
That said, it is vitally important that
SMBs do not get too lost in the big pic-
ture or in hypothetical scenarios. SMBs
simply need to look at their data stor-
age, management, and protection situ-
ations here and now, and ascertain
what is necessary and viable to grow
their businesses in an efficient manner
today. The answer lies not in some
complex solution but instead, in an
entry-level, next generation SAN.
The Smart Techie
|47| January 2011
 TECHNOLOGY
The author is Head - Testing Competency Team ), Wipro Technologies
Software Testing
Nonlinearity Initiatives in
I
n the earlier days, Product
companies used to struggle
with what is called ‘Box Men-
tality’. Box Mentality means
that companies were getting
paid only for the boxes or products
they could sell and never paid for in-
stallations or system integrations they
did. It took a lot of effort on the part
of leaders to come out of this mental-
ity and to start charging for their serv-
ices too.
On the other hand, Services or-
ganizations had been struggling with
‘Reverse Box mentality’ for quite
some time. This means they were
only getting paid for the services they
deliver and not getting paid for tools
and IPs they deliver along. Testing
Services organizations were also not
different. Over the last few years,
there are attempts from top and sen-
ior leaders in the industry to reverse
the trend. The move is to start charg-
ing clients separately for the IPs and
this became a new revenue stream as
well. This method also resulted in get-
ting more revenue from the same set
of employees and thus become part of
what is known as nonlinear initia-
tives.
Nonlinearity in a Services organi-
zation can be defined as ‘achieving
substantial improvements in Gross
Margin per employee’. Four things
are important here.
The Smart Techie
|48| January 2011
By Ajikumar TN
Services Business
 We are discussing about Services
organizations
 Nonlinearity is defined in terms of
Gross Margin (GM) which can be
measured at project, account or
business unit level.
 Rate of Gross Margin is defined as
GM per employee. Nonlinearity is
all about improving this ratio.
 ‘Substantial’ is relative to the or-
ganization. The target has to be
more than the long term average of
Gross Margin and also we should
aim for an improvement we get as
a result of usual systemic improve-
ments.
Margin is the difference between
Revenue and Cost. So, we can
achieve nonlinearity by increasing
revenue and / or reducing cost. The
methods to achieve nonlinearity is
also broadly classified on these lines-
1. Revenue improvement measures
2. Cost reduction measures
A brief of different methods to
achieve nonlinearity is given below.
1. Revenue Improvement Measures
a Product Induced Services
i. Productized services
ii. Point Solution Sales
iii. Lab-on-Hire Models
b Specialization induced services
i. Specialized testing prac-
tices
ii. Emerging Technology Test-
ing Solutions
iii. Test Consultancy Special-
ists
c Nonlinear Finance Models
i. Quality based pricing
model
ii. Risk based pricing model
iii. SLA based pricing model
2. Cost Reduction Measures
a Delayering
i. Delayered Service centers
ii. Sub contracting
b Productivity improvements
Revenue improvement measures
Product Induced Services
Productized Services
Productized services are those serv-
ices which are packaged as a product
and is charged based on outcome. An
example is- delivering 1000 test cases
for an insurance application. Here the
organization or the client is not con-
sidering the number of employees
who will work towards this outcome.
The rate is defined per test case in-
stead of per employee. This way, the
organization benefits from the pro-
ductivity measures it took internally
and also the tools they used. This
leads to more revenue from the same
or lesser set of employees.
Point Solutions Sales
Point solutions are those solutions
which solve a specific problem. These
solutions improve productivity of the
team or aid the team in improving the
value of the deliverable. Earlier, these
benefits were passed on to the cus-
tomer without any fee. Now, we are
successful in positioning these tools
as value addition and charge for the
added value. An example is a test au-
tomation framework for embedded
software.
Lab-On-Hire Models
Certain test infrastructure is very
costly to build and not many cus-
tomers want to build on their own. In-
stead they depend on the service
organizations which have that lab.
Here the client is paying for the lab
and not for the employees who man
the lab and thus achieving nonlinear-
ity. An example is a mobile handset
testing lab.
Specialization induced Services
Specialized Testing Services
Specialized testing services like au-
tomation testing and performance
testing attracts more revenue since
they are special compared to the usual
functional testing. They command a
premium in the market since special
knowledge (including that of tools) is
required to execute these services.
Emerging Technology Testing Solu-
tions
Emerging Technology commands
premium from scarcity of offerings.
Since it is new, not many organiza-
tions will be in the game. An example
is virtualization testing.
Test Consultancy Specialists
Even while outsourcing substantial
part of their software testing works,
clients still need advice on certain as-
pects of testing. Consultancy services
play a role here and this job com-
mands very high premium compared
to outsourced services. An example is
‘advise me to bring efficiency in my
test team, identify right candidates for
outsourcing’
Nonlinear Finance Models
Quality Based Pricing Model
This is taking over complete testing
responsibility of customer’s product.
The payment will be linked to the
final quality of the product and not the
effort spent to achieve the same. For
example- payment is linked to
 the estimated residual defects in
the product at the end of testing or
 the field defects during the first 6
months of rollout or
 a combination like: 50 percent
linked to effort, 25 percent linked
to estimated residual defects, 25%
linked to actual field defects de-
tected in the field during the first 6
months.
Risk Based Pricing Model
This is actual partnership with the
client in designing, developing and
testing of the product. The returns are
divided between partners. The pay-
ment is linked to the risk exposure
each partner takes. Usually this hap-
pens when a client is getting into
untested waters and need the service
provider’s help.
SLA based model
Here a portion of the revenue is linked
to the service level agreements the
firm signs with the client. There will
be penalty as well as reward clauses
in the SLA. The firm’s objective is to
maximize the reward and bring more
revenue with better performance. A
services organization gets into this
model only in case of services in
which it has higher level of compe-
tencies.
Cost Reduction Measures
Delayered Service Centers
This idea stems from the fact that not
all tasks in a testing project require
equally competent, qualified and full
time team members. Some of the
tasks can be done through differently
competent and time-shared team
members. Such team members can be
part of what is called as ‘Delayered
Service Center’. This is known in dif-
ferent organizations with different
names such as – flexibility centers,
factory centers, industrialization cen-
ters etc. These centers will support
multiple clients since their activities
are defined and selected to be inde-
pendent of client sensitivities. The
time sharing thus achieved combined
with lower employee cost results in
overall cost push down.
Subcontracting
This is what is called Outsourcing 2.0.
Indian IT service providers themselves
will start outsourcing to tier 3/4 cities
and also to small firms in the city
where they are already in. The objec-
tive is to have overall less cost in get-
ting the projects executed. Certain
Service organizations have already
started thinking in this direction and
also we can spot certain small players
supporting them in this endeavor.
Productivity Improvements
In case of Fixed Price projects, the
Services Organization can lower their
cost by introducing productivity im-
provement tools and thus achieving
the same output from lower number of
employees – thus gaining an improve-
ment in the profit per employee ratio.
Do or die competition between
service providers – home as well as
abroad – is putting pressure on billing
rates and thus bringing down margins.
So it is time to think beyond the tradi-
tional employee billing rates and bring
in other sources of revenue in the serv-
ices business. As mentioned in the be-
ginning of the article, it is time to
come out of ‘reverse box mentality’.
Year after year, the portion of nonlin-
ear revenue has to increase for the or-
ganization to be competitive and also
to be profitable enough to meet the
Street expectations.
The Smart Techie
|49|
January 2011
 TECHNOLOGY By Anand Bagmar
The author is Lead Consultant, QA, ThoughtWorks
T
Future of Test Automation
Tools & Infrastructure
here are some specific
trends noticeable in the
way we do UI-based test
automation. Technology
has advanced, new inter-
faces have been created, and, as a result,
new tools have been developed that
changed our way of doing test automa-
tion.
Evolution of Test Automation Frame-
works
Let us revisit how the test automation
tools and frameworks have evolved.
 The crux of any automation frame-
work is its core engine.
 The traditional record-and-
playback set of tools sit on top of this
core framework.
 The rigidity and difficulty (amongst
other factors) in customizing the
standard record and playback scripts
resulted in the new layer being
added - that of the Custom Frame-
works.
M odular it y Data Key word
Dr iven Dr iven D r iven
Hybrid
Custom Frameworks are our cus-
tomized scripts that do optimal record
and playback. These frameworks can be
of any type as depicted in the picture on
the side.
More often than not, when one starts
to develop a Custom Framework using
either of the 4 mentioned types, you
eventually end up with a Hybrid solu-
tion - which is a combination of the dif-
The Smart Techie
|50| January 2011
ferent frameworks.
There has been a need for writing
tests in a new lingo. Something that will
be easier for non-coders (example:
Business Analysts) to read, understand,
and maybe also contribute to.
Thus arose a new type of methodol-
ogy and framework for building our Au-
tomated Tests - BDD - Behavior Driven
Development. There are many tools in
the market that allow BDD, namely,
Cucumber, JBehave, RSpec, Twist, etc.
The BDD frameworks have also
been around for some time now. When
thinking about this pattern, the question
that comes in my mind is - What is
next?
What is Next?
BDD
Custom
frameworks
Record &
Playback
Core
Framework
M odel
Based
What is next?
To answer the question - “What is
next?“ we need to understand the cur-
rent UI advancements.
Most major portals / websites now
allow the user to create their own cus-
tomized pages, based on the data they
want to see. And all this is done not by
major configuration changes, or talking
to a sys-admin.
Example: In the below image, the
Yahoo page has widgets which you can
configure and arrange in the order of
your preference, so that you are able to
see what you want to see. This is done
simply by doing some mouse gestures
and actions (drag and drop).
The whole world appears to be
moving towards providing content
based on preferences or doing actions
based on direct “interactions“.
New generation mobile phones
have touch screens that allow doing var-
ious different activities using touch-
based gestures, or orientation of the
device itself.
If you recall the movie, “The Mi-
nority Report”, the technology depicted
there is a step ahead of all this. The
movie shows the actors interacting with
images, videos, voices, all using ges-
tures made by the sensors in his hand.
This technology is already advanced
enough and is being used / tried in a
few specialized fields - like Image edit-
ing, high-end store catalogs, etc.
“Gesture Based Technology“ is the
future that we have already stepped
into!
How does this affect the software test
automation?
• Discovery Execute tests
Well, this affects us in a major way.
• Author • Form within or command line
 We eventually will be developing
• Publish • Create run command
software to support and build on
• Plugin Manager • Remote machine(s) or locally
top of this technology.
 If we are developing software,
that means we need to test it.
IDE Runtime
 This also means that we need to
do automation for it.
It is imperative for us to start think-
ing about how will we, as testers, test
Debug Report
in this new environment?
What tool support do we need to
• Regular debugger • Result analysis
test this effectively?
functions • Charts & Graphs
Lastly, let’s think BIG - why
• Advanced debugger • Archive
can’t we create / write our automa-
Discovery Author
tion tests using similar interac-
This is a very essential and critical piece To create new objects / tests scripts, the
tions?
of functionality. We want to make sure test author will use the UI objects from
we do not need to reinvent the wheel. the palette / repository, and, ‘simply’
We would also like to reuse our existing drag-&-drop various UI objects to cre-
frameworks as much as possible and ate new objects / test scripts. All the ‘in-
make the transition to UDD as seamless telligent’ code refactoring and
UDD
as possible. restructuring will happen automatically
BDD
This component will be able to re- in the backend. Refer to the picture
verse engineer the existing code base, below for reference.
Custom
frameworks
and create an UI object hierarchy avail- Note: Currently, using reverse engi-
Record &
able in a palette / repository. neering tools, we can create class dia-
Playback
Example: After running the discov- grams / UML diagrams from existing
Core
ery tool against the existing source code base. In the context of UDD, these
Framework
repository, the UI objects will are at present dummy objects. The UDD
UDD - UI Driven Development
be created like this: objects, which when moved across,
If a user can interact with a system
using gestures, why can’t we testers
change the way we write automated
tests?
Why do we have to rely on cod-
ing, or writing tests in BDD format?
Why can’t we raise the bar and
write tests using a different, interac-
tive mechanism to represent our
tests?
UDD provides us the ability to
develop our test automation suite and
framework using a visual (non-code,
non-text) medium. Since a picture
speaks a thousand words, seeing the
test components as UI objects will
provide quicker visibility into the
functionality being tested.
The UDD framework will have
the following components:
The Smart Techie
|51| January 2011
would result in the framework making appropriate modifica- to track the health of the system.
tions in the underlying code-base, without the user having to The Reporting Engine & Trend Analyzer will provide this
manually intervene. functionality out of the box.
Example: To create a new test, simply drag & drop vari-
ous existing UI objects in proper sequence to Plugin Manager
create new test scenarios as shown below. This complete framework will be built on plugins. A set of
core plugins enables this framework. The community can
contribute various other types of plugins based on their need,
requirement and vision.
Enter
criteria

A ‘hot-deployment’ mechanism will enable additions of

the new plugins into the framework without needing a restart.
View
results
Load

Example: Some plugins include:

page Make
selection from
Login results

Scheduler
Test Data Languages /
Generator Frameworks

Custom
External
Reporting
Tools &
Trend
Repositories
Select Analyzer
ticket Login
Enter Record &
Ticket Search Playback Omniture
Testing
details Engine

Checkout Checkout
xPath
UDD
This provides a pictorial view for the people looking at
Utilities ---

these tests.
When new functionality needs to be added in the code
base, the test author can use the Record & Playback Engine
functionality in combination with writing specific code for
the same if so required, and the UDD framework will auto-
matically create appropriate UI objects for it. There is also an
option to publish it to the repository for everyone’s use.
Execution Engine
The execution engine provides a lot of flexibility in terms of
how the tests should be run. There are
various options:
 Specify Critical Test Failure (CTF) dependencies.
 Run the tests within UDD framework
 Generate a command for the set of tests the user wants to
run, which the user can simply copy and paste at the com-
mand prompt and execute the tests directly without hav-
ing to create the command manually.
 Execute the tests on the same machine, remote machines
or combinations so desired.
 Launch tests via CI (Continuous Integration).
 Record & Playback Engine - to record user actions as UI
objects
 Custom Reporting / Trend Analyzer - to allow creation of
customized reports
 Scheduler - to provide test scheduling
 Languages / Frameworks - It should be easy to change
the underlying framework at the click of a button. This
way the admin user can choose to change from say using
Selenium to Sahi just by choosing which UI framework
is to be used. Similarly, it should be possible to select
which language (C#, Java, Ruby, etc.) should be used for
the code generation.
 Integration with External Tools and Repositories - ex-
ample: file diff / compare tools, source code repositories,
integration with CI (Continuous Integration) systems, etc.
How do we get ready for the future?
By following a few practices in existing test automation,
we can be in a good state to adopt what the future would
have to offer.

Reporting Engine & Trend Analyzer

Test code should be of Production quality! Use private / protected member variables / methods.
Make them public only when absolutely essential.

We are used to seeing the default, yet quite comprehensive

reports generated by the various unit testing frameworks
Import only those classes that you need. Keep test intent separate from implementation
Example: Avoid import java.util.*

(jUnit, nUnit, TestNG, etc.). However, what is lacking in this

Use xPaths with caution. Do NOT use Do not simply copy / paste code from other

is the ability to automatically consolidate reports from various

indexes. sources without understanding it completely.

different runs and archive them, create trend analysis and

Keep test data separate from test scripts. Duplicating code is NOT OK. Refactor as appropriate.

charts of various types which may be required and interesting

Do not over-engineer your framework. Have Follow the KISS principle - Keep it Short and
flexibility to scale up, but do not add extra Simple! functionality that is not needed at that
point in time.

The Smart Techie

|52| January 2011
 Buyers Perspective
Lenovo: Focusing on SMB Segment
How big do you hope will be the Mo-
bile PC market for Lenovo in India?
The mobile PC segment is one of the
fast growing segments in India. As per
IDC’s India Quarterly PC market
tracker, November 2010 release, the
sales of Notebook computers grew at
52 percent year-on-year (July-Septem-
ber 2010 over July-September 2009),
to cross 11.1 lakh units for the quarter.
With the revival of growth in the
economy and sustained consumer con-
fidence, more consumers are purchas-
ing PCs in India than ever before.
Lenovo has worked persistently in
streamlining operations, driving down
costs and improving time-to-market.
Our fine tuned focus on the young In-
dian consumer is a concrete step for-
ward to help us achieve steady growth
in the consumer and SMB segment.
How strong has been the SME pen-
etration?
Lenovo addresses multiple market
segments with its wide range of prod-
ucts and SME is certainly a high
growth segment for us. Lenovo intro-
duced variety of products for the SME
segment early this year – of these, the
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge laptops, our
flagship SME products, have been po-
sitioned as the ultimate business tool
for SMEs. Our Lenovo ThinkPad
X100e is a pioneering product in the
industry as it offers ultra portability
and the ThinkPad brand promise at an
entry-level price point. Lenovo B460
is a splendid business series laptop
with excellent features aimed at pro-
viding high-performance. Lenovo
V460 is a high-feature, high-design
super-slim machine. It is an enviable
piece of technology, providing every-
The Smart Techie
|54|
January 2011
thing that an SMB customer can ask
for. Lenovo ThinkCentre A70z all-in-
one PC that is ideal for the small and
medium businesses, is also one of the
most ‘green’ products in the market.
We are bullish on the Indian SME
market and are committed to enhance
our market share in this space. We
have streamlined our business models
by replicating best practices from our
global and emerging markets’ experi-
ence.
What are the challenges and compe-
tition you see in the market?
The Indian consumer has become
more discerning today, given the var-
ied options in the market today, con-
sumers are price-sensitive / value-
conscious and at the same time un-
willing to compromise on product
quality and features.
By constantly studying market dy-
namics and evolving consumer re-
quirements, Lenovo is effectively
addressing the requirements of PC
users across the world. On a habitual
basis, Lenovo has launched innovative
and award-winning products for cus-
tomers, with intent to deliver afford-
able innovation across a wide range of
products.
Give an insight into you recent ex-
pansion of retail presence across
India.
Currently, we have 120 plus Lenovo
Exclusive Stores (LES) across India.
We are now focusing on improving the
profitability of our existing LES. To
increase our retail footprint in tier 3-5
cities in India, we have embarked on a
major retail expansion with our LES
Lite stores – these are a smaller format
Q&A
Alex Li
of our LES. Buoyed by our ‘Get closer
to customers’ strategy, we are aiming
to achieve stronger partnerships with
our business partners and bring higher
quality retail experience. Our aim is to
have close to 400 LES Lite stores
across key tier 3-5 cities in India by
the end of FY 2010-11. We will con-
tinue to keep enhancing the quality of
our customer service and open more
service centers in different parts of the
country in due course of time.
What are your future plans?
As a company, we want to drive con-
sistent product innovation, understand
the pulse of our customers and de-
velop game changing products that
give us a competitive edge in the mar-
ket place. Lenovo has a clear roadmap
for India. Our aim is to drive better ef-
ficiency, expand our product portfolio
and increase partner profitability –
while ensuring that our customers get
nothing but the best. We will continue
our strategic investment in key growth
markets, especially tier 3 -5 cities.
With our winning suite of products
and strong channel partnerships, we
expect to achieve incremental growth
in the coming months.
Buyers Perspective
Intel Eyes Rural India By Hari Anil
In a candid conversation with The SmartTechie, Gopal Swaminathan, General Man-
ager – OEM Business, Intel India talks about the challenging Indian PC market and
s
Intel’initiatives for Rural India in partnership with Indian Government.
Q: What is Intel’s biggest chal-
lenge in Indian market and how
do plan to address it?
The PC penetration of India is com-
paratively less as opposed to that of
China, Australia and Japan. Every 10
percentage increase in broadband
connectivity and PC penetration will
have a significant impact on the GDP
of the country. Thus, PC connectiv-
ity, broadband and people utilizing
these, are all linked to the economic
growth of this country, be it in the
consumer segment or in the SMB
segment. Thus, the biggest challenge
that Intel faces in the Indian market
today is how to increase the PC pen-
etration and resolving this will be our
biggest mission in the next couple of
years.
Multiple factors need to fall into
place in order to make a change in
the issue of PC penetration. First
among these is ‘connectivity’. In
India, the broadband penetration is
just 8-10 percent, much smaller when
compared to other countries. But the
roll out of 3G wireless services will
make a huge difference. Today cus-
tomers not only want a PC but rather
a connected PC and how one opti-
mizes it and hits the market will be a
big initiative. That is something that
we are focusing on.
The second is how the customers
are going to use the PC once they
have it. A good percentage of com-
mon man does not speak English so
we need to get vernacular content in
the PC. At Intel, we are working to
achieve this. We work with various
service providers and application
vendors, and have an initiative called
app up stores where we will create
vernacular content and applications
and reach out to people. This will
make sure the PC is relevant for the
common man.
Gopal Swaminathan
Another initiative is ePCO, where
we work with the government of
Karnataka, BSNL and ItzCash. There
are about 5000 PCOs in Karnataka,
and all these are given an option to
upgrade themselves to ePCOs. With
this we aim to drive self-employ-
ment, bridge the digital divide and
increase IT adoption in semi-urban
and rural areas.
Q: What are you looking to do in
mobile device segment like Tablets
and other hand held devices?
We are working on different plans for
this segment. At present, we are
working in a concept stage for multi-
ple end customers for hand held de-
vices. In the rural India there is a lot
of work that is done on paper but can
be computed. Today, from the Centre
Q&A
of Statistics Organization (CSO), a
statistician goes acre by acre to cal-
culate the acreage of paddy in a vil-
lage, then get his numbers to national
statistics and the government uses
this to estimate whether the paddy
supply and demand are met or not.
Similarly, in healthcare department,
representatives go village by village
to find out infant mortality rate. All
this is paper driven work. Taking this
into account we have developed an
interface which will have a finger-
print reader, a small screen, keyboard
and a printer, and can be used for mi-
crofinance and other statistics com-
puting. So if a person goes into a
village with this and connects it with
the core server through broadband or
3G, he can collect money, give
money, and give receipt on the move.
Q: How are you going about your
partner initiatives?
Our biggest partner in all our initia-
tives is the government. Today the
PCs and the Laptops are moving
away from just being gadgets of the
elite to being useful devices of the
common man. The government has
shown tremendous interest is ensur-
ing that the policies are helping peo-
ple across levels. The second part of
partnership involves OEMs and some
of our deepest association is with HP,
Lenovo, Dell, HCL and others. The
third level of partnership is with the
distributors who take our products
into the market. The fourth piece is
the application developers and the
fifth, NGOs. With this intricate mesh
of multilevel partnerships, we have
been and continue to drive our pres-
ence in the Indian market.
The Smart Techie
|55| January 2011
 EVENTS By Eureka Bharali
Jury members and winners
siliconindia
VLSI/ Embedded Awards
Best VLSI/ Embedded Design - MNC
LEADERSHIP awards for the
Qualcomm
T
Embedded/ VLSI Industry
Best VLSI/ Embedded Design Established
Indian company
HCL
Best VLSI/ Embedded Design Startup
Cosmic Circuits
Best Electronic System Design company -MNC
Cisco
Best Electronic System Design company -
he semiconductor space has continuously evolved
Established Indian company
in India with significant contributions from the dif-
Tejas Networks
ferent sects – individuals, companies, institutes.
Best Electronic System Design company - Startup
There are crucial success stories which have
Redpine Signals
Award for Youngest Entrepreneur in Semiconduc-
transformed the stumbling blocks into stepping
tor space
stones driven by their passion, determination and undying
Notion Ink Team (Rohan Shravan, Rohit Rathi and
spirit of entrepreneurship. It is to honor those success
Sachin Ralhan)
streaks and recognize the business leaders of tomorrow
Outstanding Contribution to VLSI/ Embedded
within the Embedded/ VLSI industry that Mentor Graphics
Design Industry - Corporate
and SiliconIndia jointly instituted the SiliconIndia – Mentor
Wipro
Outstanding Contribution to VLSI/ Embedded
Graphics Leadership Awards.
Design Industry - academic institution
IIT Kharagpur
Outstanding Contribution to VLSI/ Embedded
Design Industry - Individual
Dr. Bobby Mitra, President & MD of TI India
The Smart Techie
|56|January 2011
Best VLSI/ Embedded Design
Established Indian company - HCL
This $2.5 billion
global IT services
company, HCL, has a
very strong product
engineering services
focus which has con-
tributed nearly 20
BN Pal – VP & Head, OEM
percent of the com-
Strategic Initiatives at HCL
pany revenue. The
Engineering and R&D Services (ERS)
group has about 12000 strong engineering
team servicing customers across domains
like Aerospace, Automotive, Medical de-
vices, Consumer Electronics and Telecom.
This group has a very vibrant system de-
sign practice that includes ASIC design
across eight verticals and 30 designs over
the last 15 months. Formation of the test
lab and other initiatives like Joint venture
with a leading EMS company has enabled
HCL to offer comprehensive Concept to
Manufacturing solutions (C2M) to leading
OEM companies.
Best Electronic System Design company -
Established Indian company
Tejas Networks
We are witnessing
an explosive
growth in telecom
over the last cou-
ple of years. One
of the key en-
ablers of this is a
Bangalore-based
Sanjay Nayak, CEO of Tejas Networks
Third from left
company, Tejas
Networks, which provides innovative optical net-
working solutions ensuring high quality telecom
services available to over half a billion people at
the world’s most affordable prices. The company
has built complex networking products using the
latest semiconductor technologies as well as de-
sign tools to not only reduce the system costs, but
also gain a time-to-market advantage.
The company is a true testament of what a
product company based in India can do to serve
the highly competitive domestic market and at the
same time produce high quality, leading-edge
products relevant to the rest of the world.
Best VLSI/ Embedded Design – MNC: Qualcomm
The company is a leader in next-generation mobile
technologies. It is the largest provider of wireless
chipset and software technology, which powers the
majority of all 3G devices commercially available
today.
The charter for the company’s Bangalore De-
sign Center is to provide highly integrated chipset
Saman Hejmadi, VP of solutions that allow the latest wireless devices to
offer more features and smaller, sleeker designs that
Engineering Qualcomm
use significantly less power. Qualcomm’s engineers
collaborate with other companies’ design centers across the globe, to deliver
complete system solutions – including reference designs, software and ap-
plications - that reduce device manufacturers’ materials costs and develop-
ment time, while speeding new products’ time-to-market.
Best VLSI/ Embedded Design
Startup - Cosmic Circuits
This Bangalore-based company pro-
vides Analog and Mixed-Signal silicon
IP cores. A large team of designers,
whose experience and expertise in cre-
ating complex analog IP is unmatched.
They have built a strong portfolio of Ganapathy Founder & CEO,
more than 250 cores in nanometer Cosmic
process nodes of leading foundries.
Outstanding Contribution to
VLSI/ Embedded Design Industry -
academic institution: IIT Kharagpur
This academic institution has unique expertise in
advanced chip design and CAD for VLSI. The
institute’s Advanced VLSI Design Lab has been
involved in research in niche areas like formal
Prof. D. Acharya, Director,
make to the event, sent his verification, RF, MEMS, analog CAD and med-
IIT, Kharagpur, who couldn't
Acceptance Message ical electronics. More than 50 PhD students have
graduated in these areas and about 40 more PhD students are cur-
rently enrolled in these areas. The institute takes pride in taping out
nearly 90 chips in the last decade, which is considered significant by
any standards.
Award for Youngest Entrepreneur in Semiconductor space
-Notion Ink Team
They are a three year old Bangalore based company. Alumni of IIT,
Kharagpur, a team of 24 year olds, Rohan Shravan, Rohit Rathi and
Sachin Ralhan, they have a dream to design devices which can do
anything, pushing computing devices towards singularity. And that’s
what they are doing right now. The first thing you do to realize your
dream is to write it somewhere. And that’s what they will help oth-
ers to do with the first ever ebook reader and tablet, ADAM, that
they showcased at the ‘Consumer Electronics Forum’ at Las Vegas
last year. Having got rave reviews from there, they are all set to take
on the world.
The Smart Techie
|57| January 2011
 EVENT

T
By Shwetha Raghavan

Bug- Experts Throw Solutions for Budding Testers

Best Electronic System Design
company -MNC : Cisco
Led by Senior Vice President and Gen-
eral Manager Pankaj Patel, the Service
Provider Business Group (SPB) of Cisco
Partho Mishra, Vice President generates nearly $10 billion in annual
& General Manager - SPB
revenues for this company. SPB-India is
group, Cisco India
around 1000 people strong and develops
Outstanding Contribution to VLSI/
Embedded Design Industry – In-
dividual: Dr. Bobby Mitra, Presi-
dent & Managing Director,
Texas Instruments India
Bobby Mitra, the ardent believer of
Dr. Bobyy Mitra sharing his
‘once-in-a-generation’ opportunity has he worldwide market for
computer software and
Acceptance Speech, as he
couldn't make to the event been instrumental in playing a pioneer-

a set of products like core routing products, optical switching ing role in creating the India semiconductor ecosystem – systems testing services is
products and access technology for service providers (operators). with key partnerships with the industry and the academia. projected to reach $56 bil- Hemanth Satam

In the recent past this group has overseen major product Under his leadership, Texas Instruments has established part- lion by 2013 despite taking
launches, including the ASR 9000 and the CRS-3 core router. nerships with over 650 engineering colleges in India. Today a hit from the global economic cri-
While the Group does recognize there is a lot of value silicon he is actively involved in creating the India Electronic sis.There are issues and concerns re-
providers bring to the table, it designs its own chips too. They Ecosystem. Bobby leads several activities of the Indian semi- lated to testing like Tools and Micheal

had launched the QuantumFlow processor that sits in its router conductor industry as the President of the VLSI (Very Large mechanical Part of testing, Handling
family of products. Scale Integration) Society of India. As amember of the Ex- Process and Metrics, which has been a
ecutive Council of NASSCOM & Chairman of India Semi- hassle for the testing community to grab
conductor Association (ISA), he plays an active role in a share of the huge pie. Siliconindia’s Sagar Patankar

Softec Conference helps testing profes-

Best Electronic System Design
several key policies and directions.
sionals to have a broader view and gain Hypothesis Based Testing (HBT) faithfully reflects their business needs
company – Startup- Redpine
solutions on the same from the experts. A new approach to detect defects dur- and provides a very effective mainte-
Signals
Founded in 2001, Redpine Signals was Jury Members
the first in the industry to launch an ultra The latest edition of the event that ing testing is by using HBT. In simple nance of these tests all along the appli-
low power and low-cost single-stream Chandra Sekhar Abburi, the Guru Ganesan took place in Mumbai had a great re- words, as T Ashok, Founder and CEO, cation life cycle. By so doing, one can
802.11n Wi-Fi chipset in late 2007. The SIgnals
Founder director of Redpine
Managing Director, ARM-India Operations sponse from the audience especially STAG Software said, “HBT is a per- move beyond testing, towards certifica-
company offers chipsets, modules and from the younger testing professionals. sonal test methodology that enables tion of the IT.”
solutions covering multiple market segments including industrial, This event brought in several Software rapid defect detection. Sharp goal clar-
consumer electronics, medical, mobile, PC, and smart energy. Techies from all over India who gained ity, purposeful activities, wide net are The Reactions
Pravin Desale, an insight from the top leaders of STAG vital for good testing and cannot typi- People were thrilled to learn about the
With 95 of its 110 employees based in Hyderabad, all aspects of VP Milpitas CA
system & software design, customer applications and adaptation Software, Rave Technologies, Flux- cally speeded up by mere tools or the entire array of the testing space in IT
(Storage Components Division), LSI onix, Accenture, Smartesting, and
to customer environment — all carried out of the India center for organizational process.” with specific sessions delving deep on
its global customers. Of the 53 patents filed from this center, 19 Symantec. one or the other type of specialized
have been granted. What’s its USP? Well, majority of the engi- Architecture Testing testing. The theme for the event was
neers who work at the Hyderabad center are handpicked from Rajiv Kapur Automation Framework around Sagar Patankar, Practice Manager, ‘Bridging the Gap; Meeting New
campuses like IIT Madras, IIT Gauhati and BITS Pilani. Managing Director, Broadcom Open Source KPIT Cummins Infosystems said, Challenges’. “Conference was well
Re-usable test automation frameworks “Time to market has become key focus organized across the testing commu-
coupled with open-source tools and while maintaining High Quality of nity targeting a good mix of corporate
VLSI/ Embedded Design Industry technologies is a key solution to shrink Service for n-tier architecture testing to and college audience to create and
- Corporate - Wipro Technologies Santhanakrishnan Raman, test cycle times and related costs. He- ensure high defect containment.” An nurture large spread of knowledge in
Although Wipro’s R&D services arm ini- Managing Director, LSI India R&D mant Satam, Associate Vice President, optimum approach will be by using various dimensions of testing. It gave
tially focused on client-driven product Datamatics said, “There are several op- Testing accelerators to provide speed a good insight and visibility into do-
engineering, it has come a long way. portunities using open source in au-
Srini Rajam, and agility and ensure high quality n- main specifics and well and non func-
Today it’s a leader in spotting technolog- tomation testing; having a completely tier architecture testing. Some of the tional aspects of test coverage. It was
VLSI Group, WiproTechnologies ical opportunities, optimizing processes,
A. Vasudevan, Vice President, Chairman and CEO, Ittiam Systems
planned framework will help us to key testing accelerators are Test case very well supported by platinum and
managing effective New Product Devel- leverage the benefits in a way that we optimization, planned percent distribu- co-sponsors in multitude of value
opment, and driving project-to-project learning. It is a hotbed of can increase the ROI of automation tion of unit tests, Integration tests, GUI added products and solutions in mod-
New Product Development learning that is likely to provide a lot testing beyond acceptable levels. We
Dr. Satyanarayan Gupta functional tests across n-tier applica- ern testing community. Was very well
of managerial lessons for the future. The third party R&D serv- need to understand the integration of
CEO, Concept2Silicon Systems. India tion, Performance and load testing ap- focused on presentations by the sub-
ices provider started with product development for the Indian various applications within our eco sys- proach, Script less automation testing. ject experts in their respective arenas
market and moved into R&D services for the global market pro- tem including other products used in or- On the same lines, Michel Guez, gave confidence in segregated world
viding VLSI design embedded software and complete product ganizations and collaborating with
development services. The product engineering services business
Vivek Sharma Managing Director of Smartesting said, of testing solutions products and serv-
V P Asia Pacific India Operation Director, systems that may not follow open “There are softwares that enable organ- ices,” said Ankur Damle Senior Man-
serves customers across telecom, computing, peripherals, semi- source architecture.”
India Research Centers, STMicroelectronics izations to produce functional tests that ager at Accenture
conductor, automotive, industrial and medical segments.

The Smart Techie

|58|January 2011 The Smart Techie
|59| January 2011
 TECH PRODUCTS
By Hari Anil

Logitech’s Rechargeable Speakers

for iPhone and iPods
Logitech India has launched the Logitech Rechargeable Speaker S715i in In-
dian market. It has two three-inch laser tuned neodymium drivers for mid
range music, two half-inch neodymium tweeters for the
high notes and four two-inch passive radiators for
deep bass. It features nickel-metal hydride
rechargeable batteries which have eight hours of
life. The speaker comes with a wireless remote
control that lets you command the power, vol-
ume, play, pause, shuffle, skip and repeat op-
tions from as far as 30 feet (10 meters). It
supports iPhone and all iPod models includ-
ing the earlier versions (1st - 3rd generation)
and comes with a 2-year limited hardware
warranty.
Price: `9,995
View Sonic launches two new tablets Lava A10 featuring latest IPS
ViewSonic launched two full touch screen tablets ViewPad 7
Samsung introduces Intel Atom powered NF210 screen
Samsung recently launched its NF210 netbooks in India. NF210 is windows and ViewPad 10 in India. These 3G enabled tablets run on
Indian mobile phone maker LAVA has released the A10,
7 based and is powered by the Intel Atom Dual Core processor N550 which Google Android 2.2 operating system. ViewPad 7 feature a
a touch screen phone that features a 3-inch IPS (In-Plane
runs at 1.50GHz. The netbook has a 64-bit Dual Core CPU with 1 MB L2 seven inch capacitive multi-touch LCD screen with 800x480
Switching) screen; the type of screen that is used in the
Cache Hyper-Threading and Inbuilt Graphics. It comes with 2GB DDR3 WVGA and a three megapixel back camera and a VGA front
Apple iPhone 4 and iPad. Lava claims this will provide
RAM and 320GB hard disk. With its 10.1 inch Anti Glare LED Backlit screen camera where as ViewPad 10 comes with a 10.1 inch screen
the A10 a superior image and a 178 degree wide viewing
NF210 weighs 1.34 kilograms. It is equipped with SRS 3D sound with stereo and 1.3 megapixel webcam with built in microphone. They
angle. The A10 comes with a 3.2 mega-pixel camera with
speakers, integrated webcam and a 4-in -1 card reader. For connectivity it fea- come with Accelerometer (G-sensor), Digital Compass and
Flash, a Yamaha PA system, and a 3.5mm headphone
tures Bluetooth 3.0, LAN and Wi-Fi. With its six cell battery NF210 offers a Ambient Light sensor. The ViewPad 7 has a 3240mAh Li-ion
jack. The phone features dual SIM capability and has
10.5 hours long battery life. A free one year Pick and Drop Warranty is of- battery that gives up to 600 hours of standby time or 6.5 hours
gravity sensor for motion based gaming. It has Snaptu
fered, within municipal limits of the city where the service center is lo- of video playback, and can be charger by using a charger or
applications for cricket updates and Facebook. Its Super
cated. This warranty can further be extended to two years by adding an USB when connected to any computer system. It also has 512
Picture Album claims to have the unique 3-D picture
additional `699. MB internal memory while ViewPad 10 1 GB of internal
viewing style. It supports up to 16GB in microSDHC as
Price: `22,990 memory. They come with leatherette cover.
expandable memory.
Price: `32,000 – 38,000
Price: `5,500
Sony’
s new interchangeable lens digital cameras
Sony launched its new Alpha NEX cameras series in India, the Alpha NEX-5K and Strontium introduces pWn Series Gaming Memory Modules
NEX-3K. The primary feature of this series is their interchangeable
lenses. The cameras come with 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 OSS Kit lens, two Strontium introduced an entire range of Gaming memory
other lenses presently available are a 16mm F2.8 and a 18-200mm modules in India. This new range is available up to 2GB
F3.5-6.3 OSS. These 14.2 megapixel cameras are equipped with capacities with triple channel for Intel Core i3/i5/i7. They
Background De-focus function, HD movie recording, 7 frames per have introduces a total of four memory modules: DDR2
second High Speed shooting and 3D Sweep Panorama. The cameras 1066 with PC2 8500 speed and 4GB size, DDR3 1600
also have Intelligent Auto Focus and Direct manual Focus. NEX 3- with PC3 12800 speed and 4GB or 6GB size, and DDR3
K is capable of 720p HD movie recording while NEX-5 features 1080i 2000 with PC3 16000 speed and 4GB size. They features
full HD movie recording. They have three inch wide tiltable LCD mon- good memory timings and fast clock speed. The power
itor which can be angled 80 degree upward or 45 degree downward. A consumption of the modules ranges between 1.5 volts and
4GB memory card and three year warranty is included with the Cameras. 2.1 volts. The family comes with a lifetime warranty.
Price: `29990 – `34990 (with 18-55mm standard lens) Price: `3,950 – 5,950

The Smart Techie

|60| January 2011 The Smart Techie
|61| January 2011
 LEADERSHIP By Binu T Paul
T
Move Beyond Logic
he world steps aside for the per-
son who knows where he is
going. When Mahatma Gandhi,
returned to India, people sneered
at his idea of making it a free
country. A similar reaction would have con-
fronted Michael Dell, had he mentioned
about building the largest PC company when
the likes of HP and Honeywell were doing
the rounds. Had they refrained from their vi-
sions merely guided by the logic of others,
today India wouldn’t have a free economy
stand and the IT industry would have been
bereaved of a customized PC expert like Dell.
In short, to be a successful leader, defy logic.
Each person, who may have landed as a
leader needs a massive vision. “Goals are
measurable and logically possible while vi-
sion is illogical and might look difficult and
impossible to achieve. A leader has a goal in
the direction of the vision,” said Dr. Vivek
Mansingh1, President VTG & Unified Com-
munication Group India at Cisco Systems.
Certain snaps of history would show many
such people who were forced by circum-
stances to take up a broad vision without
being prepared for it and then set their path
to success through experience and guidance.
Within the IT industry itself there are
scores of examples, like Azim Premji, who
was another Stanford student and was
overnight entrusted with the respon-
sibility of Wipro. If wished, he
could have passed on the responsi-
bilities to experienced personnels,
but it was the zeal to learn and ac-
cept the situation that makes him
an admirable leader. So, are
leaders born or made? As per
statistics, only 10 percent of
leaders are born, the rest of the
90 percent are made or trained.
Dr Vivek Mansingh In Dr. Mansingh’s word,
“Everyone has the leadership
skill hidden within and it’s
The Smart Techie
|62| January 2011
only a matter of positioning in the right way”.
The most important criteria to project
oneself as a good leader is passion. It is the
absolute commitment to the vision you want
to achieve. A large part of the human brain
does not work on logic. When mind does not
work on logic, it follows the emotional sig-
nals. Passion helps us to charge that large
part of brain by which one can achieve these
illogical goals. This passion is mostly por-
trayed through better communication of your
ideas and also via commanding enough re-
spect and trust as a leader. In an organiza-
tional setup, co-operation and least favoritism
will help one to earn the trust of others. And
talk about better communication, U.S. Presi-
dent Barrack Obama, whose ‘Yes We Can’
speech inspired every parts of the world, por-
trays the best example. It’s all about commu-
nicating to make the listener feel to be an
important part of your vision.
A look at the surroundings will show up
many good managers, who are guided by the
logic and those who brave those logic to
achieve desired results are leaders in the true
sense. They tend to stand as the change
agents portraying exceptional execution skills
and follow up on every step taken and con-
tinues to challenge any opposing situation.
To be the phenomenal cream of the crop, it
doesn’t take thousands of skills rather just
one powerful skill that would one apart from
others. Whether, it’s the simplicity and
charisma of Narayana Murthy or the boldness
of Indira Gandhi or the tolerant and non-vio-
lent attitude of Mahatma Gandhi, each of
these strong personal skills make them idols
for everyone. All it takes is to build up the ob-
session nurturing the key skill and even after
years your ways will be remembered and ad-
mired, as it’s beyond articulation. .
1 Dr. Vivek Mansingh was Country Man-
ager, Dell India R&D when he spoke at the
siliconindia Leadership Summit in 2010
Regn. No. KRNA/BGE-1046/08-10 RNI REG.NO. KARENG/2006/16955